North Korea boasts that its factory output is improving people’s lives, but many factory-made food products sit unsold well past their expiration dates.
“The products made at factories nowadays may have flashy logos and labels, but they often taste worse and have lower quality than what people make at home. Given the high prices, people aren’t willing to spend their hard-earned money on things that may look nice but taste bad,” a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK recently.
According to the source, food factories in Pyongyang have recently started modernizing their logos and upgrading their packaging to compete with other factories producing sweet snacks, drinks, and similar products.
But customers show little interest in products that taste worse than homemade alternatives while costing significantly more.
North Koreans with limited disposable income are especially reluctant to spend money on sweet snacks, which aren’t even dietary necessities.
Under these circumstances, unsold products are accumulating in stores, with some snacks remaining on shelves long after their expiration dates.
The source noted this creates a frustrating situation for food factory managers. One was quoted as saying, “We need a positive cycle where production leads to consumption. But when people aren’t buying—and that’s the case right now—how can we sustain production long-term?”
Discounts used to sell goods
Stores are using various methods to clear the stock piling up in their storerooms.
Some slow-selling products are being sold at deeply discounted prices. In other cases, stores are offloading products at marketplaces to be sold for even less.
North Korean factories are required to list manufacturing dates, expiration dates, main ingredients, nutritional information, and QR codes on all packaging. But many factories put minimal effort into meeting these requirements. As a result, the source said, the listed information is often barely readable.
“A bigger problem is that people here don’t care much about manufacturing or expiration dates and don’t bother looking at nutritional information. Given that situation, factory-made snacks that are way past their expiration dates are sold at marketplaces without anyone thinking twice about it,” the source said.
The source added that stores also dispose of expired products by distributing them as “supplies” to construction sites, farms, and schools.
“Construction and farm workers are excited to get these deliveries because they’re basically free snacks. But some do comment sarcastically that they only get what nobody wants to buy,” the source said.
