SEOUL — The price of Chinese cabbage, the main ingredient in perhaps the best-known Korean dish, kimchi, has soared to 2.6 times its normal price in South Korea due to plant diseases brought on by abnormal weather.
This summer, prolonged heat waves have swept across the country, with South Korea’s Meteorological Administration announcing that both the average temperature in September and the number of days with sensory temperatures above 35 C have reached their highest since tracking began in 1973. Both consumers and producers are increasingly concerned.