By Choi Sung-jin



"Cow prices used to go up as traditional holidays came near in anticipation of rising demand. Now, however, the prices have fallen by 400,000 to 500,000 won ($356-$445) a head from three weeks ago. We cannot survive without government support."



This complaint by a livestock farmer represents mounting outcries and widespread concerns among the nation's farmers and fishermen who have supplied native beef, yellow corvina and pine mushrooms for expensive gift sets, in the run-up to the implementation of the strictest anti-corruption law Korea has ever seen on Sept. 28.



These farming and fisheries products have been sold in gift sets with price tags ranging from 100,000 won to 300,000 won each. Repackaging them into 50,000-won gift sets, as the new law stipulates, may be all but impossible.



"The end seems to have come. I will have to close after 30 years of raising cows," said a farmer in Gangwon Province. He is one of those who survived even the steep price rise of cow feed in 2013 and 2014, which shut down one fourth of the nation's cattle ranches, but he sees little hope this time.



The cattle breeders have begun to see the benefits of the price rebound since April last year. "If the ‘Kim Young-ran law takes effect and sharply reduces the demand for gift sets, it will deal a critical blow to most farmers," he said, referring to the anti-graft law named after the former Supreme Court justice who drafted its contents.



Situations are little better for fishermen who catch yellow tail runners. As the expensive salt-dried fish is usually traded in strings of 10 or 20, it is all but impossible to reduce standard packaging to meet the upper limit for a gift. "The fish price itself exceeds 50,000 won," said a corvina fisherman in Yeonggwang, South Jeolla Province. "We can neither sell them, given the production and marketing costs, nor throw away the precious catch," he said.



Also hit hard are the owners of restaurants surrounding large government office buildings.



"Just a bottle of wine can mean a bill of 150,000 won here," said a manager at a restaurant in Samcheong-dong near Cheong Wa Dae. "If you limit the dinner cost to 30,000 won per person, it is difficult to operate places like this."



Some have already shut the doors of their businesses for good. "Yujeong," a Korean-style restaurant which has been one the favorite places for former Presidents Kim Young-sam and Lee Myung-bak, among others, for the past 60 years or so, closed its doors on July 15, allegedly for fear of incurring even greater losses if the new law goes into effect. In its place will be a Vietnamese rice noodle restaurant.



Others are revising their marketing tactics by developing lower priced menus, such as a 29,000-won dinner course, to avoid exceeding the 30,000-won ceiling per person in entertaining others with meals. Still others are changing the interiors of their restaurants by reducing the size of their dining rooms and expanding halls to attract younger customers.



Major department stores are also revising sales strategies, shifting from large, expensive gift sets to smaller and cheaper ones. "We expect holiday sales will fall 10-20 percent from last year," said an official at Lotte Department Store. "Korean beef and salt-dried yellow croakers will be out and health food and canned tuna priced below 50,000 won will be in."



The distribution industry worries the new law will dash cold water on sales events jointly organized by the government and the private sector. "Chances are high that ordinary consumers, who have little to do with the law, may reduce their spending as well," said an industry executive. "It will be necessary for the government to make public the details of the law, who will be affected and by how much."



