Two million packs sold in four months, strong sales of Korean vegetarian products

Veganism , a plant-based lifestyle often referred to as "vegetarianism , " was once extremely rare in South Korea , which was ranked by the Huffington Post as one of the 13 countries "least friendly" to vegetarians in 2014 .

As many Koreans become more interested in healthy eating, they are turning to vegetarianism . Today, the market for vegetarian products in Korea is bigger than ever before.

According to the Korean Vegetarian Association, the number of vegetarians in the country has increased tenfold from 150,000 in 2008 to 1.5 million in 2018. Vegetarianism has slowly become popular in South Korea during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic .

In order to catch up with this trend, some local food companies in South Korea have been expanding their production of vegan food. Even South Korean retail giants Lotte Shopping and E-mart have entered the vegan and vegetarian market .

A Korean spicy noodle dish that has been certified by the Korean Vegetarian Certification and Service Agency has become so popular among both vegetarians and non-vegetarians in Korea that a total of 2 million packs have been sold in the past four months .

U.S. market research firm CFRA predicts that the global meal replacement market will grow from 22 trillion won in 2018 to 116 trillion won in 2030.

Although the vegan market has hardly developed into a major market, this new market has been slowly growing and has expanded from being limited to the food sector to the fashion and beauty industries.

More and more Korean fashion companies are reducing their use of animal fur and adopting clothing that follows the Responsible Down Standard (RDS), while local cosmetics companies are also introducing beauty products made from plant-based materials.

In the words of a Korean industry insider: " Korean millennials are very interested in products related to vegetarianism. They will become the new normal in the future , and whoever can meet their needs will gain a great competitive advantage in the upcoming market . "

South Korea

Vegetarianism

COVID-19