Customers buy snacks displayed on shelves of a supermarket in Seoul in April, 2021. Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

Food manufacturers are expected to further increase the prices of their products amid a worsening global supply shortage of cooking oil, wheat and other raw materials due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to industry analysts, Tuesday. This will place a heavier financial burden on households here, which have been grappling with the fastest increase in food prices seen in decades.

The country's largest food company, CJ CheilJedang, already hiked the price of Hetbahn or cooked white rice by 7 percent to 8 percent starting on March 31. The company blamed the price hike on soaring costs of fuel and ingredients.

"There is continued pressure to increase the prices of other products besides Hetbahn. We cannot confirm what items they are and exactly when we will raise prices because there are so many variables including labor, logistics and packaging costs. We are watching the market closely, on a monthly basis," a CJ CheilJedang official said.

Short supplies of wheat around the world have also forced Lotte Confectionery to increase the prices of its chocolate and ice cream products by 13 percent to 25 percent. Starting this month, the confectionery firm will raise the prices on Pepero (chocolate-covered pretzel sticks), ABC Choco Cookies and Screw Bar (strawberry-flavored popsicles) by 200 won ($0.17).

"We just decided to increase the price of our confectionery products and retailers will adopt the new prices sometime this month. There won't be any additional price hikes for now, but things can change because no one can predict when the war in Ukraine will end," a Lotte Confectionery official said.

Crown and Haitai Confectionery & Food are considering further increases in their snack prices.

"We don't have plans to hike the prices of our products yet, but we are considering it as the price of raw materials and logistical and labor costs continue to increase," a Crown official said.

Last month, Nongshim also raised the price of its popular products like Shrimp Flavored Crackers and Honey Twist Snack by 6 percent. It was the company's first price hike in three years.

Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has increased the price of soybean oil to a record high since 2008. Ukraine is the world's No.1 producer of sunflower seeds and the world's seventh-largest producer of canola oil. Russia and Ukraine also account for 29 percent of global wheat exports. Korea, which imports over 99 percent of wheat consumed locally, faces inevitable price hikes in every part of the food industry.