SEOUL, KOREA- Adults gulp down 331 cups of coffee per year on average as of 2011. On July 21, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs published a “Processed Food Segmentation Market Report” that sums up the current trend of 12 processed foods, including rice cakes and fermented foods.
According to the report, the shipments of instant coffee amounted to about 1.26 trillion won as of 2011. In other words, one adult drank about 331 cups of coffee per year.
The size of the franchise market specializing in tteokbokki (spicy rice cake) reached about 300 billion won, while the output of tofu and rice cake amounted to about 530 billion won and 371.3 billion won, respectively.
The ministry also conducted a survey with 2,500 male and female adults throughout the country to figure out how they think about processed foods. 54.4 percent of the respondents said they regularly check information about the origin of raw materials, expiration dates, and the ingredients when they buy processed foods. The share of those who have the experience of buying the ready-to-eat meals rose to 55.3 percent in 2012 from 40.5 percent in 2011.