At S.Korea's fried chicken diners, palm oil squeeze feeds inflation fears

Diners enjoy fried chicken and beer at a pub in Seoul on April 25, 2022.v- Reuters

SEOUL (Reuters): Lee's diner, a cheap-and-cheerful fried chicken shop near central Seoul, has held firm against raising prices for a decade and a half.

But now, Lee says, Indonesia's cooking oil export ban and its costly squeeze on prices have been the last straw: he expects to follow larger chains of South Korea's ubiquitous "chimaek" fried chicken-and-beer outlets that are raising prices, even if he risks losing customers.