Cabbage prices have dropped 10%, but fewer households are making their own kimchi. The labor involved and rising costs for other ingredients are pushing consumers toward packaged kimchi.
Retail cabbage prices stood at 5,557 won per head as of the 16th, down 10.33% from a year earlier, according to the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. (aT) on the 19th. The decline has not translated into cheaper kimchi-making, however, as prices for other ingredients have surged. Salted shrimp, for one, jumped 32.5% over the past year.
With the physical toll of bending over all day to prepare kimchi and the spread of one- and two-person households, more consumers are simply opting to buy it instead.
Seasoning Costs, Labor and Smaller Households
The share of households planning to make their own kimchi 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 planning to buy packaged kimchi rose 3.0 percentage points to 32.5%.
Among reasons for buying packaged kimchi, "being able to buy only as much as needed" was the most cited at 39.5%, followed by "making it is too much trouble" at 33.1%. Cabbage purchases for kimchi-making by four-person households also fell 16.4% over five years, to 18.3 heads in 2025 from 21.9 heads in 2020.
Packaged kimchi sales are moving in the opposite direction. Kurly's packaged kimchi transaction value jumped 35% in the third quarter from a year earlier, with small-size products of 100 grams to 1 kilogram up 39%. Lotte Mart's packaged kimchi sales rose 5% in the first nine months of this year, while E-Mart's small-size packaged kimchi gained 6.6%.
The premium kimchi market is expanding alongside it. Fresh kimchi from Josun Hotel, offered through Shinsegae Live Shopping, sold out its entire stock despite costing three times more than standard products. Interest in packaged kimchi made with domestic ingredients has also grown following a controversy over formaldehyde sprayed on Chinese cabbage, further fueling the premium segment. Josun Hotel & Resort's kimchi business posted revenue of 54 billion won last year, topping 50 billion won for the first time, with a target of 62 billion won this year.