Fewer than 30% of South Korean households plan to hold ancestral rites this Chuseok, a survey showed, and even those that do are increasingly scaling back the food they prepare.
The Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) released its report on fruit purchasing behavior and supply outlook for the 2026 Chuseok peak season on the 21st. The institute surveyed 1,000 household consumers nationwide online from Aug. 21 to 26, asking about their rite plans and consumption patterns to use as baseline data for measures to stabilize fruit supply and demand during the holiday peak.
Only 27.3% of households said they plan to hold Chuseok rites, down 13.1 percentage points from 40.4% a year earlier. Compared with 74.4% in the 2016 survey, the figure has fallen 47.1 percentage points in a decade. By contrast, 65.3% said they have no plans to hold rites, more than double the share that do.
Even among those planning to hold rites, more than half said they would keep the food simple. The most common answer was preparing a simplified spread in line with traditional rules, at 50.9%, while only 20.1% said they would follow traditional rules in full.
Preparing mainly dishes the family likes came next at 13.2%, followed by mixing homemade dishes with store-bought products at 8.8%. Simplified preparation was also the most common answer last year at 58.4%, showing the trend toward smaller spreads is continuing.
More than half of respondents, or 51.3%, said they would hold the rites at their parents' home. Another 21.2% said their own home, 18.7% said a relative's home and 7.7% said a gravesite or clan facility.
Expected spending on holiday food and ingredients was most often in the 200,000 won range, cited by 31.7%. Less than 200,000 won accounted for 24.7%, the 300,000 won range 22.3%, the 400,000 won range 13.2% and 500,000 won or more 8.2%.
Meanwhile, the share of respondents who said they would put imported rather than domestic fruit on the rite table rose to 38.8% this year from 34.9% a year earlier. Bananas were the most cited imported fruit at 61.3%, followed by grapes at 46.2% and oranges at 23.6%.
KREI projected that apple shipments in the three weeks before this year's Chuseok would rise 19.3% from a year earlier, with pear shipments up 6.5%. With apple acreage and yields both increasing and disease incidence declining, supply is expected to flow smoothly and price pressure to ease somewhat from last year.
