Korea's coffee drinks market grows 2.2 pct in 2019

SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean market for coffee drinks expanded more than 2 percent in 2019 thanks mainly to strong sales of bottled products, a market tracker said Monday.

Sales of coffee drinks came to 1.32 trillion won (US$1.1 billion) last year, up 2.2 percent from the previous year, according to Nielsen Korea.

Shipments of bottled coffee drinks shot up 60.1 percent on-year to 185.8 billion won in 2019, leading the overall market growth.

In contrast, sales of canned products shrank 6.1 percent on-year to 579.6 billion won, while single cups of instant coffee inched up 1.9 percent to 462.2 billion won.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co. was the market leader with a share of 26.6 percent, followed by Dongsuh Foods Corp. with 23.4 percent and Maeil Dairies Co. with 16.4 percent, according to the data.

The market share gap between the top two players narrowed to 3.2 percentage points last year from more than 10 percentage points three years earlier.

Market watchers anticipated the local market for coffee beverages to grow for some years to come, bolstered by the popularity of bottled products.

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