Seafood wholesale prices at the Noryangjin Seafood market
All seafood must be listed on Suhyup(National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives) and an enlistment cost of 4.3% is charged before the actual auction.
Already, the seafood enlisted are mostly seafood that were already auctioned at the production sites(fished sites) auction houses, thus the enlistment cost, transportation costs are added before the auction at the wholesale auction of Noryangjin Seafood market.
When seafood is successfully auctioned and bid, the transportation and additional overhead costs are charged to the wholesale stores.
Thus, the basic enlistment costs, overhead costs before the seafood reached the Noryangjin Seafood market, additional transportation, overhead costs including the sea water etc are charged before the wholesale store could even add additional costs for their profit.
Seafood retail prices at the Noryangjin Seafood market
The retail stores of the Noryangjin Seafood market usually purchase their fish and products from the wholesale stores at the Noryangjin Seafood market. Along with the profit and overhead cost charged by the wholesale stores, additional transportation cost to the aquariums are charged.
It is much more difficult to ship fish alive so these additional transportation and distribution costs are inevitable.
Then the fish are filleted and prepared with additional overhead costs including labor etc and charged to the general customers that visit the Noryangjin Seafood market for sashimi(hwe).
It would depend on knowledge and skill for the consumer to seek retail stores with affordable prices.
Discount methods at the Noryangjin Seafood market
On specific days(For 2024, it was Wednesday), the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries offered special vouchers that provided a discount up to 30% for Korea origin seafood.
The Korea government offers a 5~10% discount by the on nuri vouchers that could be purchased online that could be used at the Noryangjin Seafood market.
However, there are stores that don’t participate in this events and usually the stores state whether the vouchers could be used at their stores.
Also, many retail stores operate their own special kakao talk group chats or specific online group chats where they offer discounts.
By looking up the internet searching for these specific group chats, retail stores often offer up to 20% or even more discounts on specific items.
Often times these retail stores make special offers as well so if you are a regular visitor to the Noryangjin Seafood market, being a member of the special group chats help save a lot of budget.
Determination of costs for eating at the Noryangjin Seafood market
Overall, the daily auction prices of the specific fish species and the additional overhead costs are all charged to the seafood when using retail stores at the Noryangjin Seafood market.
Thus, simply knowing the daily auction price really helps the budget plan.
For take-out, this would be the final cost, however if consumers plan to eat at the Noryangjin Seafood market, the chojang jib, the restaurants at the second floor and the fifth floor add up a substantial cost to the budget as well.
In general, cho jang jib budget would cost at least 1/3 of the budget as they would charge prices for cooking the seafood per kg, number of fish, basic setting costs per person.
Weight Cheating at Seafood markets – mool chigi and Jeo ul chigi
There are many precautions to take when using seafood markets and although there are many honest businesses, the few bad business with their weight cheating have long been a problem at seafood markets.
Mool Chigi means adding water to increase the price while jeo ul chigi means the weight scale was manipulated to increase the price.
There are special electronic scales called conscience scales(양심저울) placed over the seafood market where consumers could check the weight of their seafood. Most seafood are charged per weight, per kilograms at the Noryangjin Seafood market.
Thus, it is crucial to know the weight cheating methods first to avoid weight cheating before checking the conscience scales. This isn’t limited to Noryangjin Seafood market but all seafood markets in Korea.
Weight Cheating Methods and Detection – Always check the weight with your own eyes
Often times, the owner would mumble the weight and immediately clear off the scale to disguise and hide the real weight.
Always check the weight of the scale measured with you own eyes and check for any cheating factors before confirming the weight and pay for the seafood.
Weight Cheating Methods and Detection – Check and Ask for proper weight scale balance adjustment
Before purchasing any kind of seafood, consumers must check if the weight scale balance is properly adjusted to zero.
Already there are so many methods to cheat weight even without the weight scale zero balance adjustment. Asking for the balance adjustment is a consumer’s right so please do not hesitate to demand.
Weight Cheating Methods and Detection – Keep an eye on the basket
Many seafood stores have their basic basket with the weight scale adjusted to zero with the basket on it scale. However, consumers could check whether it is the same basket that the weight was adjusted. Some sneaky stores quickly replace the basket with another basket. Also always ask to drain the basket before measuring weight.
Weight Cheating Methods and Detection – Ask the owner to hold the seafood for 3 seconds
Sneaky owners would try to move the seafood to the scale to measure the weight as quickly as possible because the seafood in the aquarium holds sea water that would add up on the weight.
This may add up an additional 300~800 grams of sea water.
Thus, if the owner seems to rush on weighing the sea food when taken out of the water, avoid such stores or ask to drain the water and hold the seafood for several seconds before weight measurement.
Weight Cheating Methods and Detection – Beware of all bags
Whenever a bag is involved in the weight measuring process, check if seawater is left in the bags.
The wrinkly parts of bags hold much water than you would expect and add up excessive sea water weight. Fish, crabs, crustaceans and all sorts of sea animals have spikes that punch a hole in the bag which would cause water to flow into it.
Weight Cheating Methods and Detection – Extreme caution on any scale with a pole or a rod
Many scales that measure weight rather electronic or not have a pole and rod. However these scales with a pole or rod form have many methods to increase the weight whether the owner intended or not and require extreme caution.
Simply letting the seafood touch the rod could increase the weight significantly so always check if the rod and pole doesn’t touch the seafood when measuring weight.
The rod provide leverage and press down that increased the weight. Also check if the basket touches the rod and don’t let it touch the rod as well.
Weight Cheating Methods and Detection – Be suspicious of cable ties on scales with a rod or a pole
Many dishonest businesses often utilize a cable tie on a pole and rod of a scale that would act as a leverage point and press down on the weight.
Thus if a rod or a pole has a cable tie tied onto it, never let anything contact the cable tie. Sometimes these are concealed by wrapping so do not let anything contact the pole and rod at the first place.
Many of the scales used may have special wrappings around it because sea water damages the scales. However there may be hidden items to cheat the weight so do not let any weight measuring items to contact such wrappings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mktOMXL1dU
Weight Cheating Methods and Detection – Especially be alert when weight crustaceans and crabs
King Crabs and snow crabs regardless of species have much space between their shells that could store water. Some dishonest merchants hide ice or items inside the belly pouches of the crabs or use the small spaces between the shells as a water cup to increase the weight.
Especially for crustaceans, always ask to remove the water and beware of the crustacean itself when weighing the weight.
*Snow crabs rarely weigh over 1.3 kgs while King crabs rarely weigh over 3kgs. Such crabs would look huge.
