Extreme weather has damaged the cabbage crop in South Korea, driving up prices and leaving kimchi in short supply
South Koreans face soaring costs for kimchi, a key staple of their daily diets, after extreme heat and flooding rains wiped out much of the country’s cabbage crop, making the pickled radish dish far more expensive to make and increasingly difficult to buy.
Prices for the cabbage used to make the most common type of kimchi have more than doubled in the past year and have surged 41% in just the past month to about 3,300 won ($2.32) per kilogram, according to data from the state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. Prices for white radish used in another popular type of kimchi have surged even more in the past year, by 146%, to more than 2,800 won.
The increases couldn’t come at a much worse time, given that South Koreans are already being squeezed by historically high inflation and are heading into kimchi-making season in…