Unable to Eat Fresh Raw Oysters Due to Longest Monsoon... Emart Procures 50 Tons of Fresh Raw Oysters

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Due to the prolonged rainy season, the production volume of fresh oysters has significantly decreased, causing an emergency in securing supply. At this time, E-Mart has secured 50 tons and is launching sales of fresh oysters.

E-Mart announced on the 22nd that it will offer 250g (pack) of fresh oysters at 3,960 KRW when Shinsegae Points are accumulated for one week until the 28th. Considering that the selling price of 250g of fresh oysters was 6,980 KRW in mid-October last year, the price has been lowered by about 43%.

For this event, E-Mart secured 50 tons of fresh oysters, the largest volume ever for a one-week period. Considering that the usual weekly sales volume is about 20 tons, this means they prepared more than twice the usual amount.

In particular, this year, due to the prolonged rainy season, a ‘hypoxic water mass,’ which is an oxygen-deficient mass in the sea, occurred, causing a rapid increase in oyster mortality. According to the Korea Maritime Institute’s Fisheries Monitoring Center, fresh oyster production in September this year was 73 tons, a decrease of about 39.7% compared to the same period last year. The Fisheries Monitoring Center also forecasted that production in mid-October, when oysters are in full production, will decrease compared to last year. Due to the shortage of supply, the first auction event for fresh oysters was postponed by one week.

Accordingly, E-Mart is making an all-out effort to secure fresh oyster supply by diversifying production areas. While oysters were mainly purchased from Geoje and Tongyeong in October, when fresh oysters are first produced, this year they decided to expand the regions to Goseong, Sacheon, and others to secure supply. For safe consumption of fresh oysters, norovirus and E. coli tests will be conducted twice a month from October to December. Seawater around the farms will also be tested once a month. From January next year, the norovirus test frequency will be increased to four times a month.

Moon Bu-sung, E-Mart’s oyster buyer, said, “Due to this year’s longest rainy season ever, there has been a serious emergency in fresh oyster production,” and added, “Fresh oysters are a seasonal food that signals the beginning of early winter, and we will continue to secure various oyster production areas to provide customers with safe and delicious fresh oysters.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.