Spam, It’s Whats For Dinner in South Korea
Spam is a food that has taken on a life of it’s own here in South Korea as is described in this LA Times article:
Stroll into an expensive department store and walk straight past the $180 watermelon with a ribbon twirled just so around its stem. Don’t bother with the tea in a butterfly-shaped tin for $153, or with the gift boxes of Belgian chocolates or French cheeses.
If you’re looking for a gift that bespeaks elegance and taste, you might try Spam. The luncheon meat might be the subject of satire back at home in the United States, but in South Korea it is positively classy. With $136 million in sales, South Korea is the largest market in the world outside the United States for Spam. But here, the pink luncheon meat with its gelatinous shell is deemed too nice to buy for oneself, and 40 percent of the Spam sold here is in the form of gifts.
Especially during the holidays, you can see the blue-and-yellow cans neatly stacked in the aisles of the better stores. Koreans are nearly as passionate about packaging as the Japanese and so the Spam often comes pre-wrapped in boxed sets.
“Spam really is a luxury item,’’ said Han Geun Rae, 43, an impeccably dressed fashion buyer who was loading gift boxes of Spam into a cart at Shinseyge department store in advance of the recent Chusok holiday.
The mystery of the success of Spam in Korea as described in the article is attributed to the post war years here in Korea:
Not coincidentally, Spam also is popular in Hawaii, the Philippines, Owinaka, Guam and Saipan, all places with a history of U.S. military presence. The “Miracle Meat in a Can,†as it was touted after its launch in 1937, was a staple of the military diet during World War II and later the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Until 1987, Koreans had to buy black-market cans of Spam that were diverted from U.S. military bases. Then CJ Corp. bought the rights from Hormel and began producing its own version of Spam at a factory south of Seoul. In the postwar years, Spam was a special treat for Koreans who could rarely afford meat and had no refrigeration at home.
It is harder to explain Spam’s popularity today in the world’s 11th-largest economy, where there is no shortage of fresh meat and things associated with the U.S. military are considered low-class.
Low class? How does the LA Times explain all the black marketing of US military commissaries and PX’s? They aren’t black marketing only Spam but lots of other “low class” American products.
