The autumn ritual of washing cabbage and mixing seasoning at home is fading in South Korea. A growing number of households are skipping kimjang, the annual tradition of making kimchi in bulk, and buying packaged kimchi instead.
Packaged kimchi sales at Lotte Mart rose about 5% in the first nine months of this year from a year earlier, while E-Mart's sales of small packs weighing 1 kilogram or less climbed 6.6%, according to retail industry data released on the 14th. At online grocer Kurly, packaged kimchi transactions jumped 35% between July and September from a year earlier, and the number of products on sale grew 28%.
Growth was steepest in the smallest sizes. Transactions for packs of 100 grams to 1 kilogram surged 39%, far outpacing mid-size packs of 2 to 4 kilograms, up 26%, and large packs of 5 to 10 kilograms, up 18%.
Households making their own kimchi, by contrast, are declining. The share of households preparing kimchi at home fell to 62.3% last year, down 2.2 percentage points from the previous year, according to a survey by the Korea Rural Economic Institute.
The share of respondents who buy commercial kimchi rose 3.0 percentage points to 32.5%. That figure has climbed steadily from 25.7% in 2022. Cabbage purchases for kimjang by four-person households also fell 16.4% over five years, to 18.3 heads in 2025 from 21.9 heads in 2020.
Seasoning costs, labor and smaller households
Cheaper cabbage has not made kimjang easier. The average retail price of a head of cabbage came to 5,929 won this year, down 8.5% from a year earlier, but surging prices for seasoning ingredients such as salted shrimp and garlic have pushed up the overall cost of making kimchi.
A perception has also spread that the payoff no longer justifies the work of bending over cabbage all day. The rise in one- and two-person households has further removed the reason to make kimchi in large batches.
The premium kimchi market has expanded alongside the shift. Josun Hotels & Resorts posted 54 billion won in kimchi sales last year, topping 50 billion won for the first time, after average annual growth of 23.8% from 2021 through 2025.
The company is targeting 62 billion won in sales this year. Analysts say kimchi is turning from a dish made at home into a consumer product chosen by brand.