Pricele #92: Apples (1 kg) in South Korea 🇰🇷
The puzzle for 30 September 2026 asked what a kilogram of apples costs in South Korea. Here is the answer and the context behind it.
The answer
Apples (1 kg) · South Korea
$7.84
11,275 KRW
About 34 minutes of the average local wage buys a kilogram of apples.
That makes it the most expensive kilogram of apples of all 32 countries in the game.
Source: Numbeo (crowd-sourced), retrieved 2026-08.
About apples
Apples separate the countries that grow them from the countries that fly them in. They need a temperate climate and cold storage, so in tropical and high-income import markets a kilogram can cost several times what it does in a producing country, which is why the top of this table looks nothing like the top of the others.
Where South Korea sits
Of the 32 countries priced for apples, South Korea ranks #1 from the top at $7.84, 2.8× the median of $2.84.
South Korea has notably expensive fruit. Tariffs and quarantine rules restrict imports of many fresh products, and domestic orchard land is limited, so apples cost several times what they do in producing countries. Prepared food and transport, by contrast, are cheap for a high-income country. VAT is a flat 10% with basic unprocessed foodstuffs exempt, so tax explains almost none of the fruit premium. It is border policy and land, not the till. Korea is the strongest case in the table for reading a single item's price as a story about trade rules rather than about the general cost of living.
| Nearby on the apples table | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | $4.94 | 782 JPY | 19 min |
| United States | $5.26 | 5.26 USD | 13 min |
| South Korea | $7.84 | 11,275 KRW | 34 min |
What else costs what in South Korea
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $3.74 | 5,500 KRW | 16 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $1.46 | 2,000 KRW | 6 min |
| Cappuccino | $3.64 | 5,235 KRW | 16 min |
| Milk (1 litre) | $2.02 | 2,905 KRW | 9 min |
| Eggs (dozen) | $2.85 | 4,099 KRW | 12 min |
| Gasoline (1 litre) | $1.25 | 1,798 KRW | 5 min |
| Diesel (1 litre) | $1.40 | 1,847.02 KRW | 6 min |
| Electricity (100 kWh) | $13.00 | 17,084 KRW | 56 min |
| Natural gas (100 kWh) | $7.30 | 9,568.7 KRW | 31 min |
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $3.25 | 4,500 KRW | 14 min |
| Beer (330ml) | $1.33 | 1,848 KRW | 6 min |
| Spirits (750ml bottle) | $2.12 | 2,937.5 KRW | 9 min |
| Mobile data (1 GB) | $5.01 | — | 21 min |
| A day's healthy diet | $4.49 | 6,389.97 KRW | 19 min |
Go deeper
See the full table for apples in every country or everything priced in South Korea.