President Yoon pointed at the pig with a satisfied expression.
“But isn’t there a high chance that one will turn out to be PSE?”
When I asked cautiously, President Yoon smirked. For a moment, I thought I had meddled unnecessarily, but it was already too late.
“Oh, President Jeong. Do you think I’ve been rolling around in this field for over thirty years without knowing what PSE is?”
“Ah, I didn’t mean it that way…”
“I know, of course I know. The meat is pale, releases too much moisture, all that. But listen.”
President Yoon leaned in close and spoke in a low voice, as if sharing a secret between insiders.
“From the perspective of middleman like us, this kind of thing actually makes more money.”
“Ah… really?”
“Even with PSE, it’s still Grade 2. It doesn’t drop to ‘Off-grade.’ But how much do you think this guy weighs? At a glance, it’s well over 115 kg.”
President Yoon spoke as if he were tapping on a calculator right in front of his eyes. It seemed his mental math was already finished.
“Sometimes, a 115 kg Grade 2 pig is more profitable for us than a 100 kg Grade 1+ pig. The difference in volume is bigger than the price difference per kilogram. That is, if you negotiate the buying price correctly.”
“But the quality…”
“Quality is the shop’s problem. We just pass it on to retail anyway. Won’t you be doing the same, President Jeong?”
President Yoon spoke as if it were obvious. He didn’t seem to know that I owned a butcher shop. It was rare for a butcher shop owner to come to a farm to pick out pigs personally. From President Yoon’s perspective, it was natural to assume I was a fellow middleman without even asking. Furthermore, he seemed to view me as a mere greenhorn who had just jumped into the industry at a young age.
“If you work in this industry for a long time, you’ll naturally realize something. High-quality meat is important, but meat that sells is also important.”
“I see.”
President Yoon’s advice made sense from a middleman’s perspective. All they had to do was buy cheap from the farm and pass it on to the next stage with a decent margin. It wasn’t hard to understand why he bought lower-quality meat; after all, not every consumer was looking for top-tier cuts. At that moment, President Yoon called out to Sim Young-soo.
“President Sim!”
“Yes?”
“That big guy over there, when was its shipment date?”
As expected, he was laying the groundwork for price negotiations. Sim Young-soo looked troubled.
“Ah… honestly, it’s been a few days.”
“Then it’s already late, isn’t it? If you keep raising it, it’ll just get fatter… and waste more feed.”
“Yes, that’s true, but…”
President Yoon’s voice dropped even lower.
“Then you have to adjust the price a bit. It’s already past the optimal weight, and the shipment window has passed…”
“The price is…”
“President Sim, to be honest, if I don’t take it, who will? Other companies will try to cut even more.”
President Yoon glanced at me. His expression showed the confidence of someone wanting to show a rookie the ropes of negotiation.
“Since we’ve been doing business for a long time, I’m trying to give you a fair deal.”
“How much are you thinking?”
“Twenty percent off the normal price.”
“20%? That’s a bit too…”
“Then 15%. I can’t go any higher. There’s a risk for me if I take it, too.”
In reality, President Yoon couldn’t be blamed entirely. Most importantly, without a middleman like him, Sim Young-soo would have very few ways to handle pigs that had passed their shipment date. In the end, from a farmer’s perspective, middlemen like Yoon were the last line of defense. Sim Young-soo sighed.
“Alright. Let’s do 15%.”
“Great! Then the deal is done.”
The transaction between the two ended just like that. It wasn’t a deal everyone was satisfied with, but it looked like a happy ending. Unfortunately, the real problem started now.
That pig President Yoon chose would likely receive a Grade 2 rating at the slaughterhouse. It had the risk of PSE, and its fat layer would be thick due to being overweight. However, that grade would only remain on the slaughterhouse documents.
In our country, grading labels are mandatory for beef. After slaughter, it is categorized into meat quality grades of 1++, 1+, 1, 2, and 3, and meat yield grades of A, B, and C. When consumers buy beef at a mart or butcher shop, these grades must be displayed.
‘Hanbu 1++ Grade Sirloin (Grade A).’
It looks something like that.
But pork is different. Pork carcasses are similarly evaluated at the slaughterhouse as 1+, 1, 2, or Off-grade. They look at meat quality, yield, color, fat thickness, and the presence of PSE.
However, those grades do not follow the product to the retail stage. Have you ever heard of anyone saying they bought “1+ Grade Pork”? At butcher shops or mart displays, it’s simply labeled as “Domestic Pork.”
This is why middlemen like President Yoon survive. And it is also why this cannot exactly be a happy ending for the consumers who eat this meat.
—
President Yoon finished signing the paperwork with Sim Young-soo and walked out of the office with a satisfied look.
“Well then, President Sim, I’m counting on you.”
“Yes, I’ll send them to the slaughterhouse tomorrow afternoon.”
“Good. See you next time.”
As he was about to leave, President Yoon saw me and stopped for a moment. He lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled a long trail of smoke into the air.
“Man… young President, it looks like you have a lot on your mind.”
“Not really. I was just thinking that this industry is quite complex.”
“It is complex. But it has its own rules.”
President Yoon took another puff of his cigarette before continuing.
“Think about it from the farmer’s perspective. Even if they use good feed and manage well to get a 1+ Grade, there’s no way to appeal directly to consumers in the market. It gets sold as Domestic Pork anyway.”
“That’s true.”
“Then why would they bother using expensive feed and spending money on quality control? It’s better to just raise them to a decent size and increase the weight. President Sim is just being naive.”
It was a bitter truth, but he was right. The market structure didn’t properly reward the efforts of the farmers.
“What about the consumers’ perspective?”
President Yoon chuckled at my question.
“For consumers, ignorance is bliss. If it’s labeled as Domestic Pork, they buy it thinking it’s all the same. They have no way of knowing if it’s Grade 1, Grade 2, or if there’s a risk of PSE.”
“Isn’t that a big problem?”
“You could see it as a problem. But this is its own kind of market…”
“So that’s why you do this kind of middleman distribution, President Yoon. Because you know this distribution structure so well…”
“If people like me didn’t exist, how would farmers like Sim handle pigs that missed their shipping window? And a low-end market is necessary, too. That’s how the law is set up, and I’m not doing anything illegal.”
As he said, this was also a market. The problem was the lack of transparency.
“But why did you come all the way to the farm yourself? It’s not easy to do this kind of work at such a young age.”
President Yoon asked with curious eyes.
“I wanted to pick out good meat myself.”
“Good meat? Then I guess you won’t be buying what I bought today.”
“I’m not saying I won’t buy it, but I want to do it transparently…”
President Yoon snorted.
“Oh… you’re an idealist. You’ll go bankrupt that way. This field isn’t that clean.”
“I’m aware.”
“You’re doing this even though you know?”
“Yes, I’m going to try doing it my way.”
“…”
President Yoon was silent for a while before handing me a business card.
“Well, everyone has their own way. Contact me if you change your mind. Since we’ve met, I’ll let you know if you have any questions.”
I took the business card. What I saw today was the reality of pork distribution in Korea today. It wouldn’t be easy to change, but I wanted to do things differently, at least in our shop.
President Yoon gave a light wave and left the farm. It was also time for me to head out.
I spoke to Sim Young-soo.
“I originally came thinking of about three pigs, but since I see so many good ones today, I’ll have to increase it to five.”
“Really? I’d be very grateful.”
Sim Young-soo nodded and suddenly gave me a thumbs-up.
“But President Jeong, to be honest, out of all the distributors who have come to my farm, you have the best eye.”
“Ah, I guess I just got lucky today.”
“No. I’m not just saying this to be nice… A person who has raised pigs knows which ones are good. They just don’t show it on the outside.”
“Is that so?”
“But you picked exactly what I was thinking in my head. It’s almost amazing how accurately you know.”
No one knows a pig’s condition more accurately than the farmer. They are the ones who see, feed, and manage them every day. The pigs Sim Young-soo internally thought of as ‘good’ had a very high probability of actually being excellent.
“I don’t discriminate against farm customers, but… it feels better to meet someone who recognizes the ones I’ve raised with care.”
Sim Young-soo smiled broadly.
“Then, I’ll send these five pigs to the slaughterhouse tomorrow afternoon as well.”
“Thank you.”
—
When I returned to the shop, Min-jae was busy preparing for deliveries. Only when I made a sound did he turn around.
“Oh, Brother! Are you back? How was it today?”
“It was nice and quiet without you. I learned a lot. In both good and bad ways.”
Min-jae barely listened to me, busy taping up boxes.
“Take a break.”
Min-jae made two cups of instant coffee and brought them over.
“I didn’t really drink instant coffee much before, but working at the shop, there’s nothing else like it.”
Min-jae joked as he handed me the coffee.
“You’re right. I’ve been drinking it often lately, too.”
I didn’t particularly like instant coffee either, but strangely, the instant coffee I drank while working gave me a peculiar sense of comfort. After chatting about this and that, Min-jae said, “Oh, right. Chef Park contacted us. He said he’s coming by next week to pick up the aged meat himself.”
“In person? That’s great.”
Chef Park coming in person could mean something special was happening. Normally, he would have sent an employee or used a delivery service.
“Yeah, it seems like there’s something important.”
Min-jae checked his phone and said, as if suddenly remembering, “Brother, do you know that CEO Park Jung-nam of Mega Meat and Chef Park Sung-ho of Nayeon don’t get along?”
“Hmm? Really? Why?”
Min-jae fiddled with his phone and said, “I watched that whole broadcast. The two had a huge conflict.”
“What kind of conflict?”
“It’s about when Chef Park Sung-ho won ‘Greatest Chef.’ Park Jung-nam was a judge back then.”
“Oho, really?”
When I showed interest, Min-jae got excited.
“In the finals, Chef Park Sung-ho made a Hanbu steak, and Park Jung-nam completely panned it. And he was really harsh about it.”
“What did he do?”
“‘To make a dish like this with this quality of meat shows a total lack of understanding of meat,’ ‘Ruining good Hanbu like this isn’t proper cooking’ — he said things like that. And he did it with a completely expressionless face and his arms crossed right in front of the camera.”
Min-jae explained while vividly impersonating the two. I chuckled, remembering Chef Park Sung-ho’s way of speaking.
“The other judges tasted the food and praised it as being wonderful, but Park Jung-nam alone insisted until the end, saying, ‘No, this is wrong. This is a dish that doesn’t understand meat at all.'”
“Wow… Park Jung-nam is quite stubborn.”
“In the end, Chef Park Sung-ho won by a majority vote of the other judges, but Park Jung-nam didn’t even clap and just sat there with his arms crossed. On the broadcast, it was edited to look like a simple emotional spat, but…”
“Park Jung-nam shouldn’t have done that. Cooking is something that everyone can evaluate differently.”
“Right?”
Min-jae lowered his voice.
“But what happened afterward was the real start.”
“What? That wasn’t the end?”
I thought it was just a typical setup made for entertainment in a variety show. Whether it was 2025 or 2157, the way broadcasting people staged things remained the same. It seemed like a one-time episode where they boosted ratings with a small nerve war between a judge and a contestant, then shook hands and finished when the show was over.
However, looking at Min-jae’s expression, it didn’t seem to be the case. It appeared there was a more complex and persistent conflict.
“Are you saying they kept fighting even after the show ended?”
“Yes. Chef Park Sung-ho uploaded a video to YouTube titled ‘Stereotypes about Cooking,’ where he said things like, ‘Some influential people in the food industry think only their way is the right answer,’ and ‘The times have changed, but their thinking is stuck thirty years ago.'”
“Ah, so that was targeting Park Jung-nam.”
“Yes! So of course, Park Jung-nam didn’t stay quiet. He posted about the problems of modern chefs on Instagram, firing back with things like, ‘It’s pretentious to push creativity without even having the basics down,’ and ‘Too many people don’t know the value of good ingredients.'”
Min-jae said, slightly excited.
“So even now, they’re subtly targeting each other on social media. They don’t mention names directly, but everyone in the world knows who they’re talking about.”
It was an interesting story. Both men I had seen had very clear subjective views. A clash between two such people was a story I could easily imagine.
“Then if Park Jung-nam finds out Nayeon is using our meat, he’ll hate us even more.”
“Exactly! Isn’t that what makes it more fun?”
“What do you mean ‘fun’? If Park Jung-nam goes out of his way to torment us, we’re the ones who’ll get exhausted…”
“Is that so?”
“Whether it’s Park Jung-nam or Park Sung-ho, I just hope our pork belly sells well.”