Nearly half of South Korea’s kimchi producers have closed down. What do you think is the reason behind it?

Korean people ate kimchi not out of love but out of helplessness at first, but later on, everyone got used to it, and then they regarded the habit as love. Korea is a land of bitter cold. At the same latitude, there are roughly the European Balkan countries, northern Italy and southern France, the Caucasus states of Shandong and western Japan. ?

1. This year’s kimchi production season is approaching. Domestic kimchi is expensive, but importing it from China is cheaper. The Korean government has also exempted the 27% tariff, so the Korean kimchi market is quickly occupied by hard-working people. The kimchi produced by the people of Shandong was occupied. It is said that Renzhao Town specializes in growing varieties of cabbage that Koreans like, and the seasonings are also customized according to different regions in Korea. Koreans cannot tell whether the kimchi is made in China or Korea. What does it matter if the factory is closed? Make a good brand, print the packaging, and many Chinese factories will do the OEM work. A study by Korea Ratings and Data Corporation shows that in recent years, due to market competition pressure and the continued reduction in cabbage production, nearly half of South Korea's 1,000 kimchi producers suffered from poor performance last year. Temporarily or even permanently closed. 80% of the kimchi imported by Kimchi Country comes from China, to be precise, from Renzhao Town in Pingdu, Qingdao. Koreans’ freedom to make kimchi has long been in the hands of the Chinese.

It turned around and became a national kimchi brand. Affected by the global impact, the general economy has declined, the income of the Korean people has decreased, and consumption has declined unevenly. The price of Korean kimchi is on the high side. The market has shrunk and supply exceeds demand. The lack of competitiveness of small and medium-sized kimchi companies is also one of the important reasons for their closure. Everyone knows that November is the time for Koreans to make kimchi.

2. Due to many reasons, the climate on the Korean Peninsula is much colder than that of these countries and regions. Everyone must be familiar with the volunteer army’s military service in Korea

During the war, the Korean peninsula suffered from severe cold. It’s hard to eat.

Even in the 21st century with advanced greenhouse cultivation technology, Koreans can still only grow bananas, the cheapest tropical fruit, in greenhouses on Jeju Island. In winter, Koreans on the peninsula will go to Jeju. To escape the cold, one of the popular tourist items is to visit the bananas grown in greenhouses. However, pineapples, mangos, lychees and other fruits can only rely on foreign imports.

In such a harsh environment, there is no fresh vegetables to eat in the vast white winter. Even the North Korean royal family can only salt various

vegetables in autumn (North Korea In the middle period, American red peppers brought by Portuguese merchants were used to pickle them, and they were put into earthen jars, and they were not taken out until winter.

In fact, as far as I know, before the 1960s and 1970s, people in the three northeastern provinces of China also used various pickled vegetables as their main source of vitamins in winter.

In the Middle Ages, Koreans began to make kimchi in roughly the late Joseon Dynasty.

Until the early 20th century, Koreans used white radish or turnip to make kimchi. The current cabbage kimchi was introduced after Koreans introduced cabbage from Shandong, China

Popular on the Korean Peninsula. In winter, when the temperature is dozens of degrees below zero, it’s hard to eat fresh vegetables, but you can’t eat white rice and porridge every meal, so various vegetable preservation methods, such as pickling sauerkraut, have emerged. .

3. As time goes by, everyone is used to eating it this way, and it is not available in other places, and then it

becomes a specialty or specialty. In fact, I don’t really like eating it. I know many people who don’t like eating sauerkraut. It’s just a habit.

It’s just a habit.

I guess the same goes for Koreans, but they just want to eat their specialties with dignity. Natural factors play a decisive role in the formation of a food culture. The same goes for kimchi.

The Korean Peninsula is located in eastern Asia, surrounded by sea on three sides, and only the north is connected to the mainland. The southern part has obvious maritime climate characteristics, while the northern part transitions to a continental climate. It is characterized by four distinct seasons throughout the year, with high temperatures and rainy summers, while winters are affected by the Siberian Cold Current

It is cold, dry and lasts a long time.

The cold climate makes the growing season of Korean vegetables very short. If you want to eat vegetables during the long winter, you must store vegetables in large quantities. But in an era without modern storage methods, vegetables had to undergo special treatment before they could be eaten for a long time.

It is against this background that kimchi became the national food of Korea. With the arrival of the migrants came the arrival of a new culture. Since the winter in Northeast China is still cold, dry and long like North Korea, kimchi has become the number one food. After kimchi came to Yanbian, it also formed a unique Yanbian specialty spicy cabbage with the development of history.

4. In Korea, kimchi is also known as family love pickled with maternal love, and the taste of kimchi is also called "mother's taste".

Out of love and sincerity for the mother, kimchi is also called a filial product. On December 5, 2013, Korean kimchi culture was included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. .

At the critical moment of applying for World Heritage status, more than 300 Koreans gathered in Seoul and jointly made more than 100 tons of kimchi, breaking the Guinness record for the most people in the world.

The record of making kimchi together pushed the atmosphere of the UNESCO World Heritage application to a climax. What a delicacy contains should not be the simple taste, but the humanistic feelings behind it. When applying for World Heritage, Koreans focused on explaining the stories behind winter kimchi:

Before winter comes, neighbors gather together to make and share kimchi, forming a A warm landscape. This spirit of neighborhood sharing has strengthened the bond, sense of belonging and identity among Koreans, and added a humanistic touch to the cultural core of kimchi. And

This is the decisive factor in the success of Korean kimchi’s application as a World Heritage Site. ?

I think the sales volume of pickles in any province in China far exceeds that of Korean kimchi. If film and television works do not show it, it does not mean that people do not eat it. If

there is a special topic on national pickle records The film should be more exciting than the Korean one. Foreigners will think after watching it: Chinese people are really keen on pickles! There are only a few people in South Korea, and when the weather is bad, the price of Chinese cabbage often soars, and there are often fifty or sixty Chinese cabbage plants.

However, due to extreme weather and other factors, normal production is not possible. The price of kimchi raw materials such as cabbage and radish has increased, and Korean people are worried about the shortage of kimchi supply. This year's crop production has generally been reduced, corn and soybeans are not fully pollinated, and high temperatures have made animals generally unable to grow meat. Shandong exports the most vegetables to South Korea, and the country of origin will also see price increases to varying degrees. The profit of this product is meager and it is sensitive to the price of raw materials, which has overwhelmed many. We don’t produce kimchi, we are just pickle transporters.