SEOUL, February 15 — South Korea’s online food market posted explosive growth in 2020 from a year earlier due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, reported Yonhap news agency.
According to data from Statistics Korea and industry sources, the value of online food transactions in Asia’s fourth-largest economy came to 43.4 trillion won (RM158.8 billion) last year, up 62.4 per cent from a year earlier.
The online food market surpassed the 40 trillion-won mark last year after reaching 26.7 trillion won the previous year.
Last year’s surge was attributed to a marked increase in contact-free consumption in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The tally covers online transactions of food, groceries, farm produce, meat and fisheries goods, as well as food delivery services.
Mobile shopping stood at 35.1 trillion won, or 70 per cent of the total, with internet shopping taking up the remainder.
Industry sources said food companies are beefing up efforts to catch up with soaring online shopping due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. — Bernama
