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As a developed country with a leading income level, South Korea cannot afford the most common Chinese cabbage, which implies the deep-seated dilemma faced by South Korea's agricultural development, why can't South Korea support its people's daily vegetable consumption?
First, the price of Chinese cabbage continues to rise
As the price of Chinese cabbage in South Korea continues to rise, many South Koreans are facing the dilemma of not being able to afford to eat Chinese cabbage, but surprisingly, even the middle class is struggling to buy Chinese cabbage on a daily basis.
The price of Chinese cabbage in South Korea has doubled in the past five years amid high housing prices and the cost of living, while wage growth has not kept pace with inflation, which is why even the middle class is struggling to maintain cabbage consumption.
Chinese cabbage is one of the most important vegetables in the daily life of Koreans, and it is loved by Korean consumers for its lighter taste and rich nutrients.
Chinese cabbage used to be an indispensable part of the daily diet of most families in South Korea, but due to various influences, the price of Chinese cabbage has continued to rise, affecting the purchasing power of the people, and it has gradually become a luxury food that many families cannot afford.
The main reason for the continuous increase in the price of Chinese cabbage is the impact of climatic conditions on yields, as a crop sensitive to climate change, its yield will drop significantly in the event of abnormal weather.
Frequent typhoons in summer seriously affect the growth of cabbage, and cold and low temperatures in the winter often lead to unstable cabbage production and difficult to meet market demand, so the price of Korean cabbage soars in these climate-affected seasons.
The shortage of land resources is also an important reason for the continuous rise in the price of Chinese cabbage in South Korea, as a small and populous island country, South Korea has always had a serious problem of land resource scarcity.
With the long-term rapid urbanization, more and more farmland is being developed into residential and commercial land, which seriously reduces the scale of available arable land, and the cultivation area of Korean cabbage and other crops continues to decline.
Second, South Korea's agricultural development is facing challenges
As a peninsular country dominated by mountains and hills, South Korea's lack of flat arable land determines that its agricultural development space is limited by natural conditions, and it is difficult to apply mechanization on a large scale in crop cultivation, resulting in low production efficiency.
South Korea's past industry-first development strategy has led to the attraction of resources to the industrial sector for a long time, and the high density of population distribution has made land resources available for agriculture increasingly strained.
South Korea's dual-track food management policy has greatly suppressed the prices of agricultural products, and the development path of industrial priority has led to the continuous erosion of the basic competitiveness of South Korea's agriculture, and the rapid urbanization process has further narrowed the living space of agriculture.
With the continuous development of South Korea's economy and the continuous improvement of urbanization, a large number of rural people have moved into urban employment on a large scale, resulting in a large amount of agricultural land being expropriated for industrial development.
This has directly replaced the agricultural production base, increased competition for land resources, and the urbanization process has become an important driving force for the difficulties of South Korea's agriculture, gradually eroding its original advantages and competitiveness.
3. Countermeasures and deficiencies
In the face of agricultural difficulties, South Korea has adopted a series of countermeasures, and the state will implement quantitative or pricing subsidies for some important agricultural products according to crop costs and market prices to support farmers' incomes and stabilize market supply and demand.
The long-term implementation of this policy has also brought certain problems: the intensity of subsidies is difficult to adapt to local conditions, resulting in difficulties in some areas and crops to truly benefit, and the high-cost subsidies have also increased the financial burden, making it difficult to meet the new needs of agricultural restructuring.
In addition to price support, South Korea has also led the initiative to help agriculture through science and technology, vigorously supported investment in agricultural scientific research, actively cultivated high-yield crop varieties suitable for South Korea's national conditions, and promoted modern agricultural equipment to overcome the limitations of natural conditions.
This kind of technology-based measures also face certain difficulties, because the overall scale of Korean agriculture is small, and it is difficult to apply related technologies on a large scale, which makes it difficult to apply R&D results.
South Korea also has flaws in the implementation of policies to expand domestic demand and protect agricultural restructuring, so it needs to be further optimized in terms of science and technology to help agriculture and promote agricultural restructuring.
South Korea's long-term emphasis on large-scale agriculture has made it difficult for traditional small-scale family operations to survive, and has also damaged the foundation for sustainable development of agriculture, which is still difficult to meet the demands of agriculture facing deep structural adjustment.
Summary:
The continuous rise in the price of Chinese cabbage in South Korea is a representative manifestation of the difficulties faced by the country's agricultural development.
The overall development of South Korea's agriculture is limited by natural geographical conditions and the shortage of land resources, and the long-term policy of prioritizing industrial development has also weakened the construction of its agricultural basic capacity, and the urbanization process and the lag in policy adjustment have further exacerbated these problems.
How should South Korea balance the various factors to liberate its agricultural potential and promote structural upgrading, and what methods should it adopt to maximize the protection of farmers' demands and carry out the country's overall strategic transformation?
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