Even Seniors Prefer 'Convenience Meals' Over 'Homemade'... HMR, a National Food Culture, Accelerates to 5 Trillion Won

Senior Consumers Seeking Care and Handmade Taste Now Major Buyers of Convenience Foods
HMR Evolving into 5th Generation... Explosive Growth with Quality Improvements

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] As senior households join the ranks of consumers for Home Meal Replacements (HMR), HMR is emerging as a national food culture. Over the past five years, households in their 20s and 30s were the main consumers of the HMR market, but as products have become even more convenient and quality has improved, the senior demographic is rising as a key customer, and the market is expected to grow explosively.

"Honey, I bought convenient meals instead of Gomguk (beef bone soup)"

According to Kantar Worldpanel on the 30th, the purchase experience rate of convenient meal porridge products among senior households (defined as households with a minimum age of 55 or older, 2.83 million households, accounting for 14.5% of the total 19.58 million households) increased by 15.7 percentage points from July 2019 to June 2020 compared to the same period two years prior (July 2017 to June 2018). This increase rate is higher than the 13.5 percentage point increase in purchase experience rate among all households. In particular, soup dishes are in high demand. While the experience rate for soup dishes among all households increased by 9.9 percentage points, the increase rate among senior households reached 17.8 percentage points.

A Kantar Worldpanel official stated, "Until now, HMR's main consumers were single-person or two-person households and busy workers in their 20s and 30s, but now it is expanding to senior households. The generation that had the strongest resistance to eating purchased food has joined, making HMR a national food culture."

The market outlook is also bright. According to the '2019 Processed Food Submarket Status Report' by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT), the domestic HMR market size was estimated to have approached 4 trillion won last year and is expected to exceed 5 trillion won by 2022. The industry expects that as the purchase experience rate among senior households increases, reaching 5 trillion won could happen even faster.

The rapid increase in single-person households is accelerating this trend. According to the Population and Housing Census by Statistics Korea, the proportion of single-person households in Korea was only 9.0% in 1990, but rose to 15.5% in 2000 and 23.9% in 2010. Last year, it reached 5.62 million households, accounting for 28.6% of the total 19.67 million households. The proportion of single-person households is expected to steadily rise to 31.89% in 2025 and 34.60% in 2035.

Evolving into the 5th Generation of HMR, Just Like Restaurant Menus

The food industry is continuously pursuing the evolution of HMR in line with market growth. The '1st Generation HMR' (1980s to early 2000s) mainly focused on retort pouch foods emphasizing convenience. Ottogi's 3-minute curry is a representative example. Then, with the emergence of frozen foods such as frozen dumplings, refrigerated noodles, and porridge, the '2nd Generation HMR' era (early 2000s to 2013) began. CJ CheilJedang, Pulmuone, and Ourhome led the market by launching numerous new frozen dumpling products.

From the '3rd Generation HMR' (2013 to 2014), HMR began to replace home-cooked meals. Korean-style HMR such as frozen rice, cup rice, stews, soups, and jjigae (stews) increased significantly. Leading this market were major domestic food companies like CJ CheilJedang and Ottogi. Retailers such as E-Mart also joined, increasing the number of market participants. The '4th Generation HMR' (post-2015) emerged with products considering health, taste, convenience, and nutrition. Product varieties expanded from lunchboxes commonly found at neighborhood convenience stores to delicacies using salmon, steak, and lobster. Meal kits (semi-prepared meals) featuring recipes from famous chefs and convenient meals inspired by international cuisines from Thailand, Vietnam, Spain, and more also increased.

Now, convenient meals are moving toward the '5th Generation HMR.' A key focus of the 5th generation is 'restaurant-style convenient meals' that bring restaurant menus into convenient meal formats. As the convenient meal market continues to grow and the COVID-19 pandemic prolongs, even dining-out companies are releasing convenient meals that allow customers to easily enjoy restaurant dishes at home. CJ Foodville attracted attention by launching RMR products featuring specialized menus from VIPS and Seasonal Table. Ottogi also gained industry attention by releasing 'Simple Meal Braised Fish 3 Types,' which allows consumers to enjoy delicious braised fish simply by microwaving.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.