Market size of meal kits South Korea 2018-2023

The overall market size of meal kits in South Korea stood at approximately 295 million U.S. dollars. It had grown to over 10 times its size in 2018. Meal kits provide consumers all the ingredients they need for cooking a meal, saving them the time needed for planning and preparing a fresh meal by themselves.

Growing interest in meal kits

Most South Korean adults were well aware of meal kits. Among women, the awareness was even higher. In 2021, the share of people who had bought such products had also increased dramatically to over 80 percent. Compared to two years earlier, that was an increase of over 48 percent in buyers.

What type of meals are commonly prepared using meal kits?

According to a survey in 2023, the popular cuisine to use meal kits for was the domestic Korean cuisine. Accordingly, it is not surprising that those dishes made up most of the meal kits available in the market, far exceeding other options. South Korean consumers preferred meal kit dishes the most, that included some kind of meat, followed by seafood. The importance placed on vegetables was very little in comparison.