Last Year Food Industry Production Exceeds 100 Trillion Won... Record High

Increase in Food and Livestock Production Performance
Top Producer CJ CheilJedang, 2nd Place Nongshim

Last year, the domestic food industry's production performance surpassed 100 trillion won, marking an all-time high.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Food Safety Information Service announced on the 27th that last year's domestic food industry production reached 105.011 trillion won, a 12.7% increase from the previous year (93.158 trillion won). This is more than double the average annual growth rate of 5.5% over the past five years (2017?2021). The food industry production accounted for 4.9% of the domestic gross domestic product (GDP) and 19.1% of the domestic manufacturing GDP. The food industry includes food manufacturing and processing, food additive manufacturing, container and packaging manufacturing, livestock product processing, meat packaging, and health functional food manufacturing.

The production performance of 'food' and 'livestock products,' which account for 97.4% of the food industry production, increased.

Meal Kit Production Performance Increased by 228%

The production performance of food and related products was 67.7062 trillion won, accounting for 64.5% of the total production. This represents a 13.2% increase compared to last year (59.7871 trillion won). The production of home meal replacements (HMR) was 4.4616 trillion won, up 14.1% from the previous year (3.9097 trillion won). Among HMRs, simple cooking sets (meal kits) increased by 228.3% from 53.8 billion won the previous year, ready-to-cook foods (processed rice, soups, stews, etc.) rose by 8%, ready-to-eat foods (lunch boxes, gimbap, etc.) increased by 12.4%, and fresh convenience foods (salads, cut fruits, etc.) grew by 17.5% compared to the previous year.

In particular, meal kit production has increased over the past three years. Despite the lifting of social distancing measures, the demand for meal kits has grown due to their relatively affordable price, simple cooking methods, fresh ingredients, and convenient purchasing environment, influenced by rising dining-out prices.

Carbonated beverage production last year reached 1.9394 trillion won, a 15.1% increase from the previous year. This is attributed to the popularity of sugar-substitute sweetener-added (sugar zero) drinks, reflecting a health-conscious trend. The average annual growth rate of carbonated beverage production over the past three years is 18.7%.

Production of plant-based oils last year was 2.1377 trillion won, up 33.1% from the previous year, and flour products reached 1.5264 trillion won, a 53.3% increase. The production value increased significantly compared to the production volume growth. This is analyzed to be due to the prolonged Russia-Ukraine war, climate change, and other recent international developments causing instability in food raw material supply, leading to increased production costs for plant-based oils (palm oil, soybean oil, etc.) and flour products, which heavily depend on imported raw materials.

Increased Performance in Packaged Pork, Beef, and Seasoned Meat

Livestock product production reached 34.4998 trillion won, a 12.5% increase from the previous year. Over the past five years (2018?2022), the top three food production items were packaged pork, packaged beef, and seasoned meat. Last year, packaged pork production was 8.6848 trillion won, accounting for 25.2% of total livestock products. Packaged beef and seasoned meat were 7.1547 trillion won and 5.1066 trillion won, representing 20.7% and 14.8% of the total, respectively. These three items accounted for 60.7% of total livestock product production. The increase in livestock product production is attributed to the westernization of eating habits, with annual per capita meat consumption (58 kg) surpassing rice consumption (56 kg) last year, indicating a continuous rise in livestock product consumption.

Health functional food production was 2.805 trillion won, a 3.4% increase from the previous year. However, this growth rate was lower than the average annual growth rate over the past five years. The main reason is believed to be the slowdown in growth after the lifting of social distancing measures, following an increase during the COVID-19 pandemic due to health-conscious consumer behavior. The product with the highest production value remained red ginseng products (21% market share, 589.6 billion won). Production of vitamin and mineral products was 381.7 billion won, a 33.2% increase from the previous year. This is analyzed as increased demand for vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C (172.5 billion won), zinc (37.7 billion won), and vitamin E (15.2 billion won), which are known to help boost immunity and have antioxidant effects. Notably, protein products, one of the three major nutrients, showed a significant increase in production value to 80.7 billion won compared to the previous year.

CJ CheilJedang Tops Production Performance, Samyang Foods, Daesang, and Samyang Surpass 1 Trillion Won for the First Time

There were nine manufacturers with production performance exceeding 1 trillion won: eight food manufacturing and processing companies and one livestock product processing (dairy) company. This year, Samyang Foods, Samyang Corporation, and Daesang were added. CJ CheilJedang ranked first again last year, recording 3.0243 trillion won, a 30.3% increase from the previous year (2.3217 trillion won). Following were Nongshim (2.228 trillion won), Lotte Chilsung Beverage (2.2196 trillion won), Hite Jinro (1.6689 trillion won), Ottogi (1.358 trillion won), Samyang Foods (1.1786 trillion won), Seoul Milk Cooperative (1.1194 trillion won), Samyang Corporation (1.0234 trillion won), and Daesang (1.0076 trillion won).

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