Quirky Asia Files: South Korea's Kimchi Crisis

Mon petit chou!

Here are the details of the catastrophic cabbage shortage.  More here!  Blurb:

September rains ruined much of this year's napa cabbage crop, leaving most stores out of stock and driving up the price of what's left to $10 a head, four times the usual. The Seoul city government has implemented a kimchi bailout program, subsidizing the 300,000 heads of cabbage it is bringing in from rural farms, and the federal government has reduced tariffs on Chinese-grown cabbage.

Black markets have also sprung up, fueling what may be history's most ambitious cabbage-related heist: four men were recently caught trying to make off with over 400 heads of napa cabbage.