Be careful when ordering that second bowl of rice, because it now costs 2,000 won

The cost of groceries climbed at a steep rate in the last two years, and eventually more and more restaurants are raising the price of a bowl of rice (gonggibap) from the long-established 1,000 won to 2,000 won.

On October 17, the menu of a franchise restaurant in Jung-gu, Seoul stated the price of a bowl of rice as 2,000 won. The restaurant raised the price in March. A, the owner of the restaurant said, “Rice is our main ingredient, but we can’t handle the current price,” and explained, “Even now, we only buy a little rice from the distributor, and when we find a cheap deal on the internet, we buy in bulk.”

A dakgalbi (spicy stir-fried chicken) restaurant nearby sold a bowl of rice for 1,500 won. The owner, B, said, “Around Chuseok, the price of rice jumped from slightly over 40,000 won per 20 kg to 57,000 won. Last year, three heads of cabbage cost 15,000 won, but now they’re 19,000 won. The price of cheese went up as well.” He further said, “I wanted to raise the price of a bowl of rice to 2,000 won and also raise the price of other dishes as well, but I couldn’t because I was worried about the customers’ response.”

One restaurant owner who did not raise the price of a bowl of rice said he was worried he might lose customers despite having trouble bearing the cost. Im Dong-hun, who runs a gukbap (hot soup with rice) restaurant in Jung-gu, said, “These days the company hands employees about 8,000 to 8,500 won per meal, but it’s not enough to cover the full cost of the meal. So people fill the gap with their own money. In this situation, I can’t raise the price of a bowl of rice.” One serving of gukbap at this restaurant costs around 9,000-10,000 won.

According to restaurant owners, the price of a bowl of rice rose because the price had remained the same for a long time and because of higher food prices. The price of rice also increased significantly. According to the Korea Agro Marketing Information Service operated by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT), the average retail price of 20kg of rice was 61,505 won as of Tuesday, up 20% from the previous year (48,952 won). A look at the price of rice in the last ten years showed that the average price of rice in January-September was highest in 2021, but the price in October was highest this year at 61,543 won per 20 kg.

Park Heung-sik, former chair of the Korea Peasants League said, “Last year, the price of rice crashed, and the government purchased 900,000 tons of seed rice. The government has not released this rice in the market, which is why the price of rice soared.” He explained, “Because of that, there was a shortage of rice seeds in August.”

In addition to the bowl of rice, the price of food is rising in general. According to True Price, a price information portal run by the Korea Consumer Agency, last month, the price of a bowl of jajangmyeon was 7,069 won in Seoul, up 77 won from the previous month. This was the first time that the price of jajangmyeon exceeded 7,000 won. A serving (200g) of samgyeopsal (pork belly) at restaurants cost 19,253 won, up 103 won from the previous month, and the price of naengmyeon (cold noodles) also surpassed 13,000 won. The retail price of a head of napa cabbage was 6,587 won, up 11% from the same period last year.