Health Management Boom... 'Sugar-Free and Livestock Products' Production Surged

Last year, the domestic food industry saw a notable increase in the production of sugar-free foods and livestock products for diet-conscious consumers due to the spread of health trends.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Food Safety Information Center announced on the 29th that the total production performance (production amount) of the domestic food industry last year was 114.8252 trillion won, an increase of 5.8% compared to the previous year. Production performance refers to the amount calculated by the manufacturing cost of products produced during the business period, calculated in units of 1,000 won.

Last year's food industry production performance was 4.5% of the domestic gross domestic product (GDP) of 2,549.1207 trillion won. Compared to the domestic manufacturing total production (GDP) of 684.5992 trillion won, it accounted for 16.8%. By industry, food and food additives accounted for the largest share at 74.2920 trillion won (64.7%). Among them, the most produced items were instant meals and convenience foods (5.8859 trillion won), sauces (4.9555 trillion won), and bread (3.7527 trillion won).

Livestock products accounted for 37.7714 trillion won (32.9%), and health functional foods accounted for 2.7618 trillion won (2.4%).

In particular, the spread of value consumption that pursues health and pleasure simultaneously, such as healthy pleasure and well-aging, led to an increase in the development and production of products reflecting health-related trends. This is analyzed as a reflection of the increase in consumer interest in health and quality of life and changes in consumption tendencies throughout the Korean food industry.

In fact, the number of sugar-free product production performance reports last year was 590, more than doubling in one year, and the production amount increased by 20.1% to 572.6 billion won. As the culture of consuming healthy foods spread through social media, the production of plant-based raw material products also recorded 69.1 billion won, growing about fivefold.

Livestock product production performance was 37.7714 trillion won, accounting for 32.9% of the total food production performance. Compared to the previous year, it increased by 5.5%.

There were 10 companies with food industry production performance exceeding 1 trillion won. These include 9 food manufacturing and processing companies and 1 livestock processing company (dairy processing company). Compared to last year, there was a decrease of one food manufacturing and processing company.

CJ CheilJedang (2.844 trillion won) ranked first again last year. It was followed by Nongshim (2.3766 trillion won), Lotte Chilsung Beverage (2.2461 trillion won), Ottogi (1.6503 trillion won), Lotte Wellfood (1.5028 trillion won), Hite Jinro (1.4988 trillion won), Seoul Milk Cooperative (1.2627 trillion won), Samyang Foods (1.1697 trillion won), and Daesang (1.0964 trillion won).

Last year's export performance was 7.25915 billion dollars, an increase of 10% compared to the previous year. The most exported item was ramen (fried noodles), which increased by 17.6% compared to the previous year to 1.18632 billion dollars. Instant meals and convenience foods followed with 787.17 million dollars, a 25.6% increase, and seasoned seaweed rose by 22.2% to 489.14 million dollars.

This production performance data is used as basic data for analyzing the current status of the food industry sector. It will be used for future product analysis and research in the food industry and government policy formulation.


ssuccu@fnnews.com Kim Seoyeon Reporter