Vegetables that became more precious than meat...Cabbage prices, how high are you going?

■ Host: Park Seok-won Anchor
■ Video connection: Lee Eun-hee, professor of consumer studies at Inha University

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN New Square 10AM] when quoting.

[Anchor]
As the price of summer cabbage continues to rise, vegetable side dishes are more expensive than meat these days. Let's find out with Lee Eun-hee, a consumer studies professor at Inha University, how long cabbage prices will continue. Professor, you're out, right?

[Lee Eunhee]
Hello.

[Anchor]
You were also surprised to see the price of cabbage when you went grocery shopping, right?

[Lee Eunhee]
Yes, 22,000 won per head is an amazingly expensive price, and you can see it like this. Last month, the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation announces the retail price of vegetables every month. The retail price of a cabbage was announced at 3,337 won last month. However, this price was around 3,000 won in March and May alone, but it almost tripled because it rose to 9,000 won. Compared to last year, the price of cabbage has risen too much because it has increased almost 70% or 69.5%. Even if I go up, I think it's gone up too much.

[Anchor]
It's more expensive than most beef, but is it because the weather is hot?

[Lee Eunhee]
Originally, cabbage is called a cold-weather vegetable that grows well in a cool place. That's why it's hot in the summer, so it's mainly grown in highlands in Gangwon-do. But it was too hot this summer. That's why the highland in Gangwon-do was so hot. So, it's only appropriate temperature for cabbage to grow when it's over 30 degrees Celsius and below 25 degrees Celsius, but a lot of soft diseases such as cabbage rotting stems and roots also occurred. Then, compared to last year, the cultivation area of highland cabbage has also decreased slightly. So, the reason why the price is so high right now is two reasons: giving the cultivation area and being too hot this summer.

[Anchor]
As a result, more people give up making kimchi and buy packaged kimchi, leading to a sellout.

[Lee Eunhee]
It's good to buy packaged kimchi, but I'm very worried that the price of packaged kimchi will also increase because the price of packaged kimchi has increased.

[Anchor]
The government has decided to import cabbage from China urgently, but it is scheduled to release 16 tons from tomorrow. Will it help stabilize cabbage prices?

[Lee Eunhee]
For me, the price is going up because there is a shortage of supply compared to the demand that consumers want right now. So I think that importing Chinese cabbage to increase supply will help stabilize prices. So, the first volume is 160,000 tons, and it is expected to control the import volume while looking at the supply and demand situation in the future.

[Anchor]
The price of summer cabbage has risen a lot because of the hot weather, and won't autumn cabbage come out by the middle of next month? Will things get better if autumn cabbage comes out?

[Lee Eunhee]
It's a little better. Currently, the cultivation area of cabbage is increased by six times compared to the highland. So the price is expected to stabilize a little more than the current price of 22,000 won or 9,000 won, and the price is expected to stabilize because Chinese cabbage is also imported now. The problem is that if the abnormal climate continues from September or October, there is a possibility that the price will be shaken again if there is a problem with the cabbage crop.

[Anchor]
Some people are also concerned about this because there is heavy rain damage, but now the prices of spinach, radish, and vegetables, as well as cabbage, have risen. As a result, some people say that it is Veggie inflation, and some say that we need to come up with a more stable supply plan. What do you think about this?

[Lee Eunhee]
But in fact, fresh food, vegetables, and fruits are different from printing things at factories. Therefore, there is a problem that the supply and demand of farmers fall every year when demand is low and supply is high, so the supply and demand do not match well every year. Furthermore, if the abnormal climate persists like this year, supply is not smooth, resulting in an increase in cabbage prices. So now you're talking about vegetables, vegetables, vegetables, and inflation, combined, we're talking about veggie inflation. Nevertheless, I think the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries should manage the supply and demand situation in advance without soaring prices of vegetables or fruits.

[Anchor]
Let's talk about something else. Many people are saying that electricity bills and electricity bills will fly even hotter than heat waves after the heat wave, did you get the bill, professor?

[Lee Eun-hee]
Yes, I received it.

[Anchor]
The August fare is quite high, right?

[Lee Eunhee]
I was shocked because the electricity bill was higher than in previous years. Because it was hot this summer.

[Anchor]
But even if it's hot in August, the September fee will be as much as or more than the August fee, so why?

[Lee Eunhee]
As you can see from the graphic you just saw, it was so hot this summer compared to last year and the year before, so the amount of power used continued to increase. So, compared to last year and the year before last, the use of electricity continued to increase, and another thing you'll see in this graph is that the second week of September was greater than the fifth week of August. That's why I expect that August will definitely cost a lot of electricity, but consumers are surprised to see a lot of electricity in September. What I'm going to tell you at this point is that electricity rates are progressive. Therefore, if you go out of the progressive tax range, you can see that the rate increases exponentially, but since it was hot this year, I used it a lot, so I thought, "Oh, it came out too much than I expected."

[Anchor]
Electricity rates in the fourth quarter are frozen for now, but is there a possibility of an increase this year?

[Lee Eunhee]
It's a freeze for the fourth quarter. Actually, it's been frozen since the third quarter of last year. So it's been frozen for five quarters now. I'm sure you all know that KEPCO has a severe deficit. So, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy keeps saying that they will normalize electricity bills, but I think they're only looking at the timing because it was so hot this summer. However, electricity bills are expected to increase in the fourth quarter of this year due to an additional 5 won per kilowatt.

[Anchor]
I see. Let's stop here. So far, I have been with Lee Eun-hee, a consumer studies professor at Inha University. Thank you, professor.

[Lee Eunhee]
Thank you.