"Cheaper Than Imported: Emart Offers Half-Price 'Mun-eo' for One Week"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Emart announced on the 18th that it will sell domestic boiled octopus at about half the regular price for one week.

When purchasing with Shinsegae points accumulation, octopus can be bought at 2,480 KRW per 100g. Considering that the previous price for domestic boiled octopus at Emart was 4,960 KRW per 100g, this is about 50% cheaper, and it is an unusual situation where the price is even lower than imported octopus at 3,480 KRW and domestic jjukkumi at 3,580 KRW.

An Emart official explained, "Through data analysis, we predicted a decrease in demand for domestic octopus due to COVID-19 and a rise in imported octopus prices, so we pre-stocked a large quantity of domestic octopus." He added, "We secured 40 tons of stock, about three times the 13 tons sold during the peak domestic octopus season of the holiday week, on a weekly basis."

Domestic octopus is usually sold mainly during holidays due to its high price, but demand decreased and inventory accumulated as people spent last Chuseok and this Seollal in a 'contactless holiday' manner, causing prices to fall. Coupled with sluggish consumption, the wholesale price of domestic octopus dropped about 20% from 14,000 KRW per kg in November to 11,000 KRW per kg in December last year.

On the other hand, imported octopus prices have been rising continuously since last year as global octopus catches decreased. In particular, rumors that the fishing ban period for octopus from Mauritania, which accounts for most of Korea's imported octopus, was moved one month earlier to April than usual caused the price of imported octopus to rise from 10,000 KRW per kg in November last year to about 15,000 KRW in February this year. This led to a price reversal where domestic octopus became cheaper than imported octopus.

Seol Bong-seok, Emart's octopus buyer, said, "Using such purchasing data, we pre-stocked domestic octopus from December last year and were able to secure a large quantity at a 20% lower price." He added, "We will continue to proactively stock through various analyses so that customers can truly experience good quality and affordable products."

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