The Origin of the Kimchi Accidents-- Korean Importers
It has been a big hotspot in Korean media recently that excessive lead
was detected in Chinese kimchi and not long after that parasite eggs
were found in it. Is it really news? New as it is, we don't find it as
a fact. The fact is: many importers in Europe, America and Japan have
entrusted the authorities in their countries with the related
detections to Chinese kimchi; no lead was found; no parasite egg was
found.
Here is a question: why is only Chinese kimchi imported to South
Korea contaminated? We will find that it is no coincidence after a
brief survey of the situation of kimchi production in China. There are
three grades of it: the best is to be exported to European, American
countries and Japan, at the price of 1,500 US dollars per M/T; the
pretty good is to be sold domestically in China, at the price of 8300
RMB per M/T, that is, 1000 US dollars; and the least good is to be sold
to South Korea, at the average price of 410 US dollars per M/T, and the
lowest can be 210 US dollars per M/T.
According to the economic rules, agricultural products, differing
from others, which can debase costs by the improvement and renovation
of technology, have a cost that cannot be reduced easily. Land
resources and labors are something that cost almost the same in a
certain area. And, they have been more and more expensive in China
nowadays. The price of kimchi imported by South Korea is much lower
than the fundamental cost. How does it come? Reasons are simple. They
produce kimchi in some simple and crude workshops which are
unregistered in the government, with raw material--cabbage and capsicum
powder of low quality. We can imagine how the final products will be
like. Then, illegal methods will be used to make sure such kimchi can
be exported to South Korea.
As a smart people, Korean must know well about the economic rules.
There can be only one reason why they collect cheap kimchi--they have
their intentions. By importing low-grade kimchi from China, they bring
a public impression that all Chinese kimchi is unqualified and harmful
to human health.
Qingdao Meiying Food Co,. Ltd., as a leading kimchi enterprise in
China, deals most of its exportation with high-level foreign companies.
Scores of Korean importers come to talk about business with it, all in
vain. That is because price is the only thing they would care about.
One such importer even said, "I wonder why you produce so good kimchi.
It's no need at all that you pay so much attention to the quality, as
to heighten the price."
As a matter of fact, Chinese and Korean kimchi, belonging to the
same industry, have their common interests. Producers from both
countries are liable to maintain the good image of kimchi, to set the
consumers' heart at rest to eat kimchi. All efforts by Korean media
trying to do bad to the fame of kimchi is unwise, for most of the raw
materials of South Korea are imported from China. And, it can be easy
if they want to import high-grade Chinese kimchi. All they need to do
is buy it from manufacturers registered in the CIQ, whose products are
qualified and clean enough.