South Korea’s famous kimchi is falling victim to climate change. Scientists, farmers and producers say the quality and quantity of the Napa cabbage used to make this ubiquitous dish is being affected by rising temperatures.
Napa cabbage thrives in cool climates and is typically grown in mountainous regions where temperatures rarely rise above 25 Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) during the main summer season.
Studies show that increasingly hot weather due to climate change is now posing a threat to these crops, so much so that one day even Napa cabbage will not be able to be grown in South Korea due to increasing heat.
“We hope these predictions don’t come true,” said plant pathologist and virologist Lee Young-gyu.
“Cabbage prefers to grow in cool climates and is adapted to a very narrow range of temperatures,” Lee said. “The optimum temperature is between 18 and 21 Celsius.”
In the fields and in kitchens — both commercial and home — farmers and kimchi makers are already feeling the changes.
Spicy, fermented kimchi is made from other vegetables such as radish, cucumber and green onion, but the most popular recipe is cabbage-based.
Describing the effects of high temperatures on the vegetable, Lee Ha-yeon, a kimchi master from the Ministry of Agriculture, said the cabbage’s heart “goes bad, and the root rots.”
“If this continues, we might have to stop eating cabbage kimchi in the summer,” Lee said, a title that reflects her contribution to food culture.
Data from the government statistics agency shows the area cultivated with highland cabbage last year was less than half of what it was 20 years ago: 3,995 hectares compared to 8,796 hectares.
According to the Rural Development Administration, a state agricultural think tank, arable land will drop dramatically to just 44 hectares in the next 25 years due to climate change scenarios, and cabbage will no longer be grown in hilly areas by 2090.
Researchers cite higher temperatures, unexpectedly heavy rainfall and pests, which become more difficult to control in summer, as reasons for the crop shrinkage.
Fungal infection that causes wilting of plants has also been a cause of concern for farmers, particularly because its effects become visible only at the time of harvesting.
Climate change adds to the challenges facing South Korea’s kimchi industry, which is already struggling with low-priced imports from China that are served in most restaurants.
Customs data released on Monday showed kimchi imports rose 6.9% to $98.5 million this year to the end of July, with nearly all of it from China and the highest ever for the period.
Until now, the government has relied largely on climate-controlled storage to prevent price spikes and shortages. Scientists are also racing to develop crop varieties that can grow in warmer climates and that are more resilient to large fluctuations in rainfall and infestations.
But farmers like Kim Si-gap, 71, who has worked his whole life in the cabbage fields in the eastern region of Gangneung, fear these varieties will be expensive to grow and will not taste as good.
“When we saw the report that there would come a time in Korea when we would not be able to grow cabbage, it was shocking on the one hand and sad on the other,” Kim said.
“Kimchi is something we can’t stop eating. What would we do if that happened?”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
