A Vietnamese worker at a tangerine farm (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
HANOI, Jun. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – As soaring prices and the weakening South Korean won make living costs increasingly untenable, Vietnamese workers in the country are tightening their belts, cutting back on grocery and remittance expenses to make ends meet, according to Vietnamese media reports.
Nguyen Phuc Thien, 28, who has worked at a container flooring factory in South Korea for three years earning around 2.7 million won a month, recently reduced his consumption of vegetable side dishes from three times to just once a week due to the cost of produce, VN Express reported.
“Fruit is too expensive to even consider,” said Nguyen, noting that a bundle of spinach has surged from around 1,200 won to 3,000 won, estimating his former grocery habits would now inflate his food spending two or threefold.
Instead, Nguyen has stopped visiting supermarkets, opting to buy communal orders of Vietnamese-grown produce through social media groups or asking relatives back home to mail vegetables from their gardens.
Despite needing to maintain his health amid grueling factory labor, Nguyen also goes to bed earlier to reduce his caloric needs. “I work more but eat less, yet my savings don’t increase,” he lamented of the budgetary crunch.
South Korea ranks as the third most popular destination for Vietnamese migrant workers after Japan and Taiwan, known for relatively favorable wages, benefits and labor conditions. Over 49,000 Vietnamese were employed in the country last summer, earning $1,500 to $2,000 monthly.
However, South Korean consumer inflation accelerated 3.1% in March from a year earlier and remained elevated at 2.9% in April and 2.7% in May. The won has also sharply depreciated against the U.S. dollar, falling from around 1,290 won last December to the 1,370 range now.
The double whammy of inflated living costs and unfavorable exchange rates has delivered a major financial blow to Vietnamese workers, VN Express explained.
Another Vietnamese citizen, who has lived in South Korea with her husband for nearly a decade, now shops at traditional markets instead of supermarkets to trim grocery bills. She relies on dried provisions mailed from Vietnam for side dishes while also using medicines and coffee shipped from home.
With the savings, she can only afford to wire money for the childcare costs of her 7-year-old daughter, who remains with grandparents in Vietnam.
“At this level of inflation, it’s bearable,” she said. “But if prices keep rising, we may have to consider returning to Vietnam.”
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
