S. Korea's online food market grows explosively in 2020 amid pandemic

SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's online food market posted explosive growth in 2020 from a year earlier due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday.

The value of online food transactions in Asia's fourth-largest economy came to 43.4 trillion won (US$39.2 billion) last year, up 62.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea and industry sources.

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 percent 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.

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