Kimjang Season 2026: Up to 40% Off Cabbage, Radish and Kimchi Ingredients Until Dec 2

Kimjang, the late-autumn tradition of making and sharing kimchi, is getting a discount season: kimjang ingredients are up to 40 percent off from Oct 29 to Dec 2 at more than 300 retailers, as part of the second Korea Grand Festival. Korean beef and seafood have their own sales, and UNESCO listed kimjang as intangible cultural heritage in 2013.

The discounts, item by item

The Busan Ilbo reported the figures on Oct 27, 2026. The festival itself runs from Oct 29 to Nov 15, but the kimjang sale continues until Dec 2, 17 days after the festival ends, and the seafood sale runs to Nov 29.

The kimjang ingredients are sold at more than 300 retailers, which the Busan Ilbo describes as marts across the country and local agricultural cooperatives. The seafood discounts are available at marts nationwide and on public home shopping. The Korean beef sale is timed around Nov 1, which the Busan Ilbo reports as the day for eating Korean beef, a Sunday in 2026.

What kimjang is

According to UNESCO, kimchi is the Korean name for preserved vegetables seasoned with spices and fermented seafood, and the practice follows a yearly cycle. In spring, households procure shrimp, anchovy and other seafood for salting and fermenting. In summer, they buy sea salt for the brine. In late summer, red chilli peppers are dried and ground into powder. UNESCO says late autumn is kimjang season, when communities collectively make and share large quantities of kimchi, with households making enough to last through the winter.

UNESCO also says cooks check weather forecasts to pick the best day and temperature, and that family methods are typically passed from a mother-in-law to her newly married daughter-in-law. It added kimjang to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013. It says the collective practice reaffirms Korean identity and that skills and ideas are shared as households exchange kimchi.

Why the sale items match the cycle

The festival’s seafood sale includes salted shrimp and sea salt, two of the things UNESCO’s description says households buy earlier in the year for kimchi. The kimjang sale then covers the vegetables and seasonings of the season itself. Read side by side, the sale lists and the UNESCO description overlap: fermented seafood and salt on one side, and on the other the late-autumn cabbage, radish, chili, garlic and ginger.

Other food-related offers in the festival

The Busan Ilbo also reports a digital Onnuri gift certificate discount that rises from 7 percent to 10 percent from Nov 2 to Nov 6, and local gift certificates with an extra 5 percentage points on top of the usual discount during the festival: 13 percent in the metropolitan area, 15 percent elsewhere and 17 percent in population-decline areas. The period differs by local government. A reward lottery with 5,600 winners and 1.7 billion won in prizes runs to Nov 15, with one entry for each 30,000 won of cumulative payments.

If you live in Korea or are visiting

1. Check the dates before you shop: beef ends Nov 8, seafood ends Nov 29 and kimjang ingredients end Dec 2.
2. Look for festival banners at a mart or a local agricultural cooperative, which are the places named for the kimjang sale.
3. Check the rules of the gift certificates and the lottery before counting on them: the digital Onnuri certificate is applied through an app, and the local gift certificate period differs by local government.

• Beef, seafood and kimjang dates noted
• Nearest mart or co-op found
• Gift certificate rules checked, if living in Korea

Frequently asked questions