The data also showed that exports of HMR items increased by 323.1% to $34.93 million during the cited period.
Seoul: South Korea’s instant meal market jumped more than 145% in 2020 from four years earlier due to the rise in convenience stores and the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday.
Shipments of ready-to-eat items, known as home meal replacements (HMRs) in South Korea, were 2.01 trillion won ($1.7 billion) in 2020, up up 145.3% from 2016, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp.
The 2020 tally also rose 18.7 percent from the previous year, Xinhua News Agency reports.
The ministry and the company attributed the exponential growth of the HMR market to the increase in the number of convenience stores, the Covid-19 pandemic and the increased use of air fryers among local households.
In particular, the prolonged coronavirus pandemic has led to increased demand for ready-to-eat products in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, they added.
The data also showed that exports of HMR items increased by 323.1% to $34.93 million during the cited period.
The 2020 figure was up 35.1% from the previous year.
The increase was attributed to greater overseas exposure of South Korean food culture via online images and the popularity of the made-for-TV “mukbang,” a Korean term that refers to a live broadcast. line featuring its host feeding on any type of food.
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