Amid reports that North Korea has sent another group of construction workers to the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, these workers are buying up pork cuts that locals typically avoid, driving up market prices.
“More North Korean construction workers arrived in Nizhny Novgorod this month. This group of 60 workers is employed by Cholhyon Trading Company, a civilian enterprise supervised by the Ministry of National Defense,” a source in Russia told Daily NK recently.
The North Korean workers, divided into small teams, are responsible for preparing their own meals with groceries purchased from local markets. They have been buying large quantities of less popular pork cuts such as rinds, trotters, and heads.
“North Koreans are clearing the shelves of items like pork rinds and trotters. With this sudden surge in demand, market butchers have been increasing their prices,” the source said.
“Here in Russia, we don’t even feed pork rinds to dogs. But since North Koreans keep buying these items, we’ve had to raise our prices. Despite the higher costs, we still can’t keep them in stock,” one local butcher told our source.
“I’ve been a butcher my entire life, and I’ve never before had to increase prices on these unusual pork cuts so dramatically in such a short period. That shows just how much North Koreans are buying,” the butcher added.
The price of a kilogram of pork rind at local butcher shops has jumped from just 40 rubles (around $5) at the beginning of the year to 100 rubles ($12) this month.
The rising prices haven’t deterred North Korean customers, who even ask butchers to reserve portions when new shipments arrive.
Given the high demand for these unusual pork cuts, butchers who previously didn’t stock them are now setting up special display areas, the source said.
Russians generally consider these exotic pork cuts as animal food rather than for human consumption. “North Koreans are surprised to learn that pork rinds and other cuts they rarely get to eat at home are being fed to animals or thrown away. They often thank butchers for selling them what they consider delicacies that would otherwise go to waste,” the source said.
March 24, 2025 at 03:30PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)