The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Wednesday it will offer discounts of up to 56% on four high-demand agricultural products—potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and spinach—to ease grocery bills during the year-end and New Year holiday season.
The promotion will run simultaneously at Homeplus and Hanaro Mart stores. The discounted items were selected based on high winter demand and frequent consumption patterns.
This is the final event of the year under the "Seoul Agricultural Products Fair Price Project," a public-private partnership initiative. Under the program, large retailers secure inventory in advance while the city government subsidizes part of the discount costs to offer products at prices below market rates.
The promotion runs from January 11 to 17 at 17 Homeplus stores and 18 Hanaro Mart locations.
Discounted prices are as follows: potatoes (Homeplus) at 5,394 won for a 2-kilogram box, 40% off the regular price; onions (Homeplus) at 4,990 won for a 3-kilogram bag, 56% off; sweet potatoes (Hanaro Mart) at 3,980 won for a 1.5-kilogram bag, 50% off; and spinach (Hanaro Mart) at 1,980 won per bunch, 50% off.
The city is also expanding infrastructure to improve public access to price information. It recently overhauled its price information website to provide market-by-market and item-by-item price comparisons, price fluctuation trends, and lowest-price displays.
To support this effort, Seoul conducts daily price surveys covering 87 agricultural, livestock, fishery, and manufactured goods items at 97 traditional markets and 12 large retailers, monitoring price trends and detecting anomalies.
"This is our final price stabilization event of the year, designed to help citizens affordably prepare everyday agricultural products," said Kim Myung-sun, director of the Fair Economy Division at Seoul Metropolitan Government. "Seoul will continue to implement effective policies and support measures to protect household grocery budgets."
