1kg, 1.6 million won. "The highest price ever"...a golden flower of autumn

[Anchor]
The price of pine mushrooms is soaring every day as the number of autumn pine mushrooms collected has decreased compared to previous years due to the record-breaking late heat.

The auction price reached an all-time high of 1.6 million won per kilogram, and the Yangyang Songi Salmon Festival, which is about to open, is also on alert.

Reporter Song Se-hyuk reports.

[Reporter]
700m above sea level, a pine forest in Yangyang, Gangwon-do.

Pine-collecting farmers carefully look around the pine roots, but it is not easy to find pine trees.

After walking around for a long time, when the pine needles are removed, a natural pine mushroom finally appears.

[Jeon Seong-jin / Farmers collecting pine mushrooms: In the past, when I rode for five hours, I used to take about 100 taps, about 5kg to 10kg, but now it's hard to find the five taps.]

In previous years, pine mushrooms are in full swing, but this year, the amount of pine mushrooms collected has decreased significantly due to the unusual late heat.

Since the 20th of last month, the amount of pine mushroom trial in Yangyang has been only 240kg.

The amount of collection has been recovering little by little due to recent rain and falling temperatures, but it is still only 1/7 of the same period last year.

As pine mushrooms become precious, the auction price continues to soar.

The first-class auction price of Yangyang Songyi was 1.6 million won per kilogram, the highest price ever.

This is more than 20 times the wholesale price of Korean beef sirloin first grade.

The Yangyang Pine Salmon Festival, which will open on the 3rd, is also expected to be disrupted due to a lack of pine mushroom supplies.

[Jeon Do-young / Yangyang Forest Association Head: It's starting to come out from a low mountain. If this temperature is set, it is judged that pine mushrooms will be produced by the end of October.

This year, farmers hope that pine tree collection will recover during the rest of the fall, as pine tree collection is the latest to begin.

I'm YTN's Song Sehyuk.


Photographer: Kim Dong-cheol
Design: Kim Hyo-jin