Gov't, retailers to offer up to 50% food discount during summer vacation season

In collaboration with South Korea's agriculture ministry and food companies, prices on food such as ramyeon, 라면, bread and coffee are being discounted up to 50 percent to help curb inflation and support consumers during the summer vacation season.

Park Jun-han has the details.

The government and food industry announced that they will provide up to a 50 percent discount on staple food items to alleviate the burden of rising prices during the summer vacation season.

The announcement was reported five days after the release of June's inflation data, which indicated a year-on-year increase of 4.6 percent for processed foods — the highest in 19 months since November 2023.

In June, 62 out of 73 processed food items saw price hikes.

To tackle the inflationary impact of this, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs held discussions with major food and retail companies last Friday to outline plans to stabilize food prices.

The discounted items will include products with high consumer price sensitivity, such as ramyeon and bread, and products with slightly reduced raw material costs, such as ice cream and 아이스크림, and juice, which are often consumed during the summer.

Participating companies include Nongshim , Otoki , SPC Group and CJ CheilJedang .

The agriculture ministry noted that rising costs of key ingredients, labor, and energy have increased the financial burden on food companies.

To ease high cost pressure, the ministry has already applied tariff quotas to 21 imported raw materials and extended value-added-tax exemptions for cocoa and coffee imports through 2025, as since 2023, the two have seen price increases of over 190 percent and 68 percent, respectively.

The ministry pledged to expand funding support for raw material purchases to ease the industry burden and agreed to continue discussions on issues such as overseas expansion and food ingredient supply.

It will monitor processed food prices over the next month and will continue to discuss discounts with industry representatives.

Park Jun-han, Arirang News.