Record heat leaves South Korean crops mashed, burned before harvest
A severe heatwave across Gangwon Province, South Korea is spoiling crops even before they come out of the ground.
In a report published Thursday, Seoul's SBS News said scorching sunlight in the region has softened potatoes as if they were boiled even before being harvested. Despite farmers digging deeper into the ground, all they have found are crops resembling mashed potatoes.
Making it even more frustrating for farmers, the spoiled fields looked healthy last week.
Fields of cabbage have "completely turned black" while waiting for harvest, forcing farmers to plough them straight back into the soil. A successful harvest would have sold for "tens of millions of won" (over P500,000) at fair market prices.
According to Haean farmer Lee Sang-hyuk, speaking to SBS, the effect of the extreme heat is widespread in Yanggu county, which is near the border with North Korea.
"It's not just one or two fields like this. How can I even put it into words? I'm so upset," he said, adding that in his 40 years of farming, he had never experienced anything like it.
Fruits are also being spoiled pre-harvest. Apple skins exposed to direct sunlight are burning and discoloring; peaches are bursting open.
According to the apple farmers in Gangwon Province, apples are not supposed to be coloring at this time of the year. But the sides exposed to steady, intense sunlight are either turning red, burning, or, if the heat is too severe, turning white.
South Korea has been experiencing extremely high temperatures since July, with the government issuing its first-ever emergency heatwave on July 12 for the cities of Gyeongsan and Pohang in the southern North Gyeongsang Province.
In the first week of August, per the Independent, Seoul sizzled in 39.5C heat while Yangsan hit 42.5C, the national record. As of August 6, the heat wave had claimed 21 lives.
Authorities linked the intense heat to Typhoon Dolphin (Typhoon Maymay in the Philippines), which has been strengthening easterly winds.
In response to the record heat, the government has ordered residents and workers in the affected regions, including Chuncheon, Hongcheon, and Hoengseong, to stay indoors during the day.
Peach farmer Park Won-sun finds the order difficult to follow, saying, "They tell us not to go out and work during the day, but these peaches keep rotting away. How can we just sit by?"
Farmers are put under more pressure because of the approaching Chuseok holiday, an annual mid-autumn festival where millions of Koreans normally travel to their hometowns to gather with family, honor their ancestors, and give thanks for the harvest. It is characterized by shared feasts of freshly harvested crops, among other things.
This year, per VisitKorea, the country's tourism website, Chuseok takes place from Sept. 24 to 26.
Varieties of fruits, including apples and peaches, that are supposed to be thriving by this time to meet the high demands of Chuseok have stopped growing because of the heat.
According to SBS, this will have a considerable effect on agricultural prices for the upcoming holiday.
