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'I can't even buy bagged bread': Food inflation hits the working class

Published: 03 Mar. 2025, 15:54 Updated: 04 Mar. 2025, 14:26

SPC Samlip's Pokemon bread is displayed at a supermarket in Seoul on Feb. 13. [YONHAP]

Haengdang-dong, eastern Seoul resident Lee Joo-hee stood in front of the bread rack at a convenience store in her neighborhood. She was there with her child to buy Pokémon bread, but was hesitant upon seeing its price. The chocolate roll cakes and cheesecake that had cost 1,500 won ($1) the week before had become more expensive — now 1,800 won each.

“I can’t even buy bagged bread without feeling bad,” the 42-year-old Lee said. “Buying just three costs over 5,000 won.”

With high currency exchange rates and oil prices hiking up import costs, food prices have continued to inflate. Restaurants and manufacturers of coffee, bread, beverages and snacks have, one by one, raised prices, citing increasing ingredient costs.

Bakery chain Tous les Jours, operated by CJ Foodville, raised the prices of around 110 baked goods, including bread and cake, by an average of 5 percent starting this month. A red bean bun that used to cost 1,800 is now 1,900 won, and a 30,000 won sweet potato cake is 31,000 won. Bakery giant SPC Group last month hiked prices at Paris Baguette and Dunkin' by an average of around 6 percent, and for around 50 baked goods produced by SPC Samlip and sold at convenience stores, up to 20 percent.

Coffee prices are going up, too. Baskin Robbins and The Venti will raise Americano prices by 400 won and 200 won, respectively, on Tuesday. Binggrae on Sunday raised prices of some of its beverages, including coffee, and ice cream by 200 won to 300 won, while Lotte Asahi Liquor increased the prices of its beer by 400 won to 900 won the same day.

“Prices for primary ingredients like coffee and cocoa rose rapidly while labor and energy costs also increased, which pressures [the company],” Binggrae said.

A cashier scans items at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Seoul on Feb. 25. [NEWS1]

The rise in food prices hits the lower income class first, and hardest. Households in the bottom 20 percent of the income bracket spent an average of 434,000 won on food per month last year, up 38.6 percent from five years prior, according to a Statistics Korea report released Sunday. Higher food prices also contribute to higher general inflation. Korea’s food and beverage price index rose 28.3 percent from five years ago to reach 122.9 last year, far exceeding the total consumer price index, which grew 14.8 percent in the same period.

The government is asking food manufacturers and firms in the restaurant industry to refrain from raising prices. Vice Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Park Beom-su asked shareholders in the restaurant industry to join in the government’s efforts to stabilize inflation in a meeting on Feb. 25, reasoning that “when firms raise prices after their profits fall, it leads to a vicious circle of faltering consumption.”

Whether the government’s requests will be effective is unclear.

An insider at a food and beverage company said their employer had previously “delayed raising prices due to political reasons, such as elections,” but that the situation had reached a point where such hikes “cannot be withheld anymore.”

BY KIM KYUNG-MI [[email protected]]