Kimchi is very important food for Koreans as a processed vegetable product which Koreans take very much right next to rice, a No. 1 staple food for Koreans. The statistics or analysis information on consumption quantity and patterns for Kimchi are still not sufficient. This research was performed to conduct the survey and analysis on the actual state of the consumption of Kimchi by general households and food service companies.
The survey on general households was conducted in the forms of web based survey and telephone survey for 2,700 households selected nationwide using stratified sample method by the category of regions and residences based on general census data of Statistics Korea. The survey on food service companies was conducted in the form of visiting survey for total 1,010 companies comprised of 661 restaurants and 349 institution's cafeteria selected nationwide using stratified sample method based on general survey on wholesale business and service industry by Statistics Korea.
The results of surveys revealed that the consumption quantity of Kimchi by households were decreasing and the number of households which directly made Kimchi for winter by themselves was also decreasing. However, the household's intention to make Kimchi for winter was increased in 2011 compared to 2010 when the supply of raw materials was in shortage. The results of surveys also revealed that households' own making of Kimchi for winter and demand for commercial winter Kimchi products were increased compared to last year even though 60% of food service business entities including restaurants usually prepared Kimchi by themselves.
The results of surveys indicated that households consumed 38.6% of total Kimchi consumption including cabbage Kimchi, radish Kimchi and other Kimchi's while the purchases of Kimchi products out of the kinds of Kimchi were skewed mainly toward cabbage Kimchi and other Kimchi's. Annual quantity of Kimchi consumption by food service companies was estimated to be approximately 700 thousand tons with main consumption of cabbage Kimchi and radish Kimchi while showing the similar propensity to that of household in the case of the purchase of Kimchi products.
Consumers' preferences on the kind, taste and maturity of Kimchi became diversified, and the trend of pursuing simplicity was appeared showing the increase in the intention to purchase of cured Kimchi. At the time of purchasing Kimchi, consumers put emphasis on 'taste' and 'safety' after checking 'manufacturer·brand name' and 'the country of origin'. Consumers responded that they were willing to pay 22% higher price for premium Kimchi products over general products. Food service companies responded that they put emphasis on 'taste', 'price' and 'sanitary safety' at the time of purchasing Kimchi products and checked 'the country of origin' and 'expiry date' first.
The results of surveys indicated that the kinds of Kimchi for which general households were willing to increase their consumption were diversified in the order of whole cabbage Kimchi, young radish root Kimchi, leaf mustard Kimchi, radish water Kimchi·sliced radish water Kimchi, no chili white Kimchi, lettuce Kimchi and green onion Kimchi while the preferences of food service companies were concentrated to whole cabbage Kimchi, 'Mak'(taste) Kimchi, square sliced radish Kimchi and young radish leaf Kimchi.
Consumption behavior of general households on Kimchi showed that the regional characteristics for cities and agricultural and fisheries villages and the characteristics of the number of people in a household such as household with 1~2 persons were important factors which affected consumption behaviors while showing the characteristics of income as a partially significant factor. The results of survey indicated that consumption behaviors of business entities on Kimchi were different depending on whether restaurants serve Korean food or not and also on the business type and size of organization's cafeteria the type of business.
The purchase quantity of Kimchi products by general households is estimated to be 156 thousand tons (of which cabbage Kimchi is 118 thousand tons). The purchase quantity of Kimchi products by food service companies is estimated to be 282 thousand tons, and 92 thousand tons of which is estimated to be imported Kimchi. Adding the purchase quantity of Kimchi products, total quantity of Kimchi products is estimated to be 438 thousand tons plus alpha (Other purposes such as military supply and manufacturing companies). When we assume that 6% of Kimchi products (The result of survey for manufacturers conducted by aT) is for other manufacturers and military supply is 50 thousand tons, total quantity of Kimchi products is estimated to be approximately 520 thousand tons.
It is estimated that the consumption quantity of business entities may be overestimated by 700 thousand tons over the actual quantity, the quantity of purchase or self-production was more than the reported figures, or difference was generated due to the duplicating factors of the above two. Especially it is judged that the purchase quantity of Kimchi products was under estimated.
The degree of utilization of the results of survey on the actual state of Kimchi consumption which was conducted this time can be lifted up by providing the results the survey in linkage with Food Industry Statistics (FIS) information and Kimchi Information Statistics System (KISS) which is being built by World Kimchi Research Institute.
In order to derive more accurate results of survey, the survey system should be improved. To reduce non-sampling errors such as 'retrospection error' of surveyee (respondent), it is desirable to build up a survey panel and to conduct periodic survey. As the methods of making Kimchi are different between households and business entities, the design for survey should be done with differentiation reflecting the difference in making Kimchi.
For more objective and concrete analysis of consumption patterns and the prospect of demand and supply of Kimchi, quantitative research on the diversified 2nd level data should be supplemented.


Researcher: Yong-Sun Lee, Ji-Hyun Choi, Kyu-eun Park
E-mail address: yslee@krei.re.kr