Kimchi-making season has arrived in the northern stretch of North Korea, including Ryanggang and North Hamgyong provinces. But aside from the financially well-off, ordinary people are apparently opting out of kimchi-making this year because they cannot afford the ingredients. Faced with persistent economic hardship, the time-honored custom of families making kimchi at the beginning of winter is reportedly dying out in North Korea.
“Kimchi-making began in Hyesan on Oct. 25. But families living from hand to mouth have little energy to spare for kimchi,” a source in Ryanggang province told Daily NK recently.
Since winter comes earlier to the far north, including Ryanggang province, kimchi-making there begins 10 days earlier than in the central part of the country. But this year, few families are busy preparing Korea’s beloved fermented food.
“It used to be that families would be preoccupied with buying and pickling cabbages for kimchi around this time of year. In fact, many families would make so much they would run out of jars to hold it. But ever since the pandemic, more families have been dropping the practice each year. At this point, families that don’t make kimchi far outnumber those that do, and communal kimchi-making has become a rare sight,” the source said.
“Many families have fallen on hard times, and they’re more worried about keeping food on the table than making kimchi. As such, many families no longer bother making it. And even those who do come by cabbages often just pickle them in salt because they can’t afford to make the traditional seasoning.”
Only the wealthy participate
In the city of Hyesan, most of the families who have made or who plan to make kimchi this year are donju (wealthy entrepreneurs) or other members of the monied class. In one neighborhood watch unit in Hyesan, for example, just five out of 30 total families said they were making kimchi this year.
In such tough times, families that can afford to make kimchi are generally affluent enough to put fish such as pollock or halibut into the seasoning. But families that struggle just to stay fed can hardly afford to buy basic ingredients such as gochugaru (red chili powder), let alone the napa cabbages and daikon radishes typically used to make kimchi.
In the past, workplaces used to make cabbages and radishes available for affordable prices around kimchi-making season. But that practice has ended, and the market price of cabbages has soared, forcing many working-class families to give up kimchi-making altogether.
North Korean market prices are directly influenced by the won’s exchange rate to the U.S. dollar and the Chinese yuan. Given the recent uptick in those exchange rates, the prices of basic ingredients such as cabbages, radishes and gochugaru have been hitting new highs, the source said.
According to the source, a kilogram of gochugaru at a market in Hyesan currently costs between 68,000 and 90,000 North Korean won, or three or four times as much as a kilogram of rice. With prices so high, kimchi-making is out of the question for families with tight finances.
Some families are getting by on soup made from outer cabbage leaves and radish stems salvaged from other families’ kimchi-making, the source said.
“Even discarded radish stems and cabbage leaves have become dear as so many people try to gather them. In the past, those would have been taken to the dump, but now even the dregs are treasured.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: dailynk.com
