Ready meals on the rise in South Korea

South Korean workers are developing an appetite for on-the-go meals, eating at their desks or while commuting – an opportunity ripe for creative converters to capitalise on, says researcher Canadean.

Busy lifestyles, longer working hours compared to other OECD countries and high one-way commute times means eating occasions are getting shorter for South Koreans, according to Canadean’s report.

To this end, Cooksoo, a dry noodle brand in South Korea, has hopped on the convenience bandwagon and introduced a folding box for its noodles, inviting consumers to add hot water and eat straight from the pack.

Dessert brand Petitzel, taking on the task of introducing the idea of dessert to the Korean market, last year won a silver award in the food and beverage category of the Creativity International Awards for its single-serving fruit jelly pouches and cups pitched at adult consumers.

Ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat packaged meals are expected to grow, as consumers have relatively less time for cooking. However, South Koreans are swapping their time for higher disposable incomes, and growing use of credit cards is expected to increase impulse buying – with packaging playing a key part in stimulating purchases.

As consumers have less time to shop, online grocery buying is expected to continue to grow – with further opportunity for packagers to keep e-purchases safe from warehouse to doorstep. Tesco Homeplus is ahead of the trend; it launched a virtual supermarket in South Korea’s subway stations in 2011 to target young and busy Koreans who rely on smartphones to take care of their daily tasks.

Canadean says innovation will be a top concern for converters in the local FMCG market, as the nation tends to be open to experiment with new products and companies must innovate continuously to meet the aspirations of South Korean consumers and stand out on the shelf (or online).

The researcher expects smaller pack sizes to become more common, with a growing share for packages less than 250g/ml in the ready meals, breakfast cereals and frozen meat categories between 2010 to 2016.

A second driver of the forecast small pack trend is an aging population, with the proportion of South Koreans aged 65 years and older predicted to more than double in the decade to 2020. Catering to this market means more lightweight, easy-to-carry, easy-to-open packages, with clearer labelling.

Canadean reports that Korean food manufacturers are taking new technologies on board to improve the quality of their packaging and take advantage of the opportunity on their doorstep; the local market is apparently saturated with competitors.

For example, Add Farm, which specialises in supplying and packaging bean sprout products from Kangwon Province, has taken on laser film perforation technology to more reliably maintain freshness.

And in Seoul, BossPack Co continues to develop WorldStar Packaging Award-winning moisture absorbent film to keep products protected. It says its Mosspack product is between four and six times more efficient than silica gel, yields less carbon and can be recycled.

Ideas, technologies and sales are expected to abound at the country’s packaging trade show, Korea Pack, in June. Organisers expect 900 exhibitors from 25 countries to show off their wares at the 2014 rendition, with an anticipated 45,000 visitors.

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