From This Day, Up to 50% Discount on Hanwoo at Department Stores
Reducing Farmers' Worries While Attracting Weekend Customers in Distribution Channels
Customers are browsing products at the meat section of Lotte Department Store Main Branch. [Photo by Lotte Department Store].
This weekend, department stores will join the government-led discount sales of Korean beef (Hanwoo) in the distribution sector. Large supermarkets and grocery stores, which had been conducting individual Hanwoo discount sales to help Hanwoo farmers struggling with the sharp drop in prices and to ease the burden on customers' shopping baskets, will also launch a ‘Hanwoo up to half-price’ event starting this weekend.
According to the distribution industry on the 17th, Lotte Department Store will hold a ‘Meat Friday’ event, offering a 40% discount on all livestock product categories at all stores for one day. This is the first large-scale discount event for livestock products this year. Representative products include ‘Premium Steak,’ carefully selected with various steak cuts such as Udae Galbi, T-bone, Tomahawk, and Chateaubriand, and ‘Prestige No.9,’ consisting of various cuts of Hanwoo with the highest grade of 1++(9).
Hyundai Department Store will also hold a discount event from the 17th to the 19th at the food halls of all 16 stores, offering Hanwoo at up to 40% lower prices. During the event, Hanwoo 1st grade sirloin roast will be sold at 9,000 KRW per 100g, and Hanwoo 1st grade beef bulgogi will be limitedly sold at 3,500 KRW per 100g.
Large supermarkets and grocery stores, which had been conducting Hanwoo discount events since early this month under their own initiative, will also join the government’s dramatic discount event of up to 50% to promote Hanwoo consumption starting today, attracting customers. Nonghyup Hanaro Mart will hold the ‘So Surprise 2023 Korea Hanwoo Sale’ event until the 19th. At Hanaro Mart Yangjae branch, which started the event on the 15th, an ‘open run’ has been taking place from the first day of the event, with customers lining up before the store opens to purchase products. Nonghyup Hanaro Mart, which is also conducting a ‘Hanwoo 300 head discount event’ throughout February, will sell 200 head quantities of Hanwoo soup cuts, sirloin, and bulgogi at up to 31% discount at 62 stores until the 19th.
Large supermarkets will intensify their half-price discount events starting from the 23rd. Lotte Mart has been running an event from the 2nd of this month to the 1st of next month, selling 1st grade Hanwoo at the same price. The price sold throughout February is about 30% cheaper than the average consumer price for February posted on the Livestock Products Quality Evaluation website.
The government has taken the lead because the recent increase in Hanwoo breeding numbers and consumption contraction have caused a sharp drop in Hanwoo prices, deepening farmers’ worries. The recent Hanwoo breeding number is about 3.5 million heads, marking a record high. This greatly exceeds the appropriate Hanwoo breeding number (2.9 million heads) suggested by the Korea Rural Economic Institute. Oversupply has led to price drops. The average wholesale price of Hanwoo fluctuated between 19,000 and 20,000 KRW per kg until October last year but dropped about 20% in three months to 15,904 KRW last month. In response, the government and related associations have adjusted wholesale prices, and the distribution sector is also lending support to attract customers.
A distribution industry official said, "With department stores also offering Hanwoo at discounted prices, the purpose of helping farmers is being fulfilled, and it is also being used as a way to attract customers during the off-season, aiming for a win-win effect."
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