Korea's chocolate market grew 9.6% in 2015

Published : Feb 13, 2017 - 11:53 Updated : Feb 13, 2017 - 11:53

South Korea's chocolate market expanded nearly 10 percent in 2015 from a year earlier, with its imports rising sharply, a report showed Monday.

Total shipments of chocolates amounted to 1.16 trillion won ($1 billion) in 2015, up 9.6 percent from the previous year's 1.06 trillion won, according to the annual report on local processed food markets compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

(Yonhap)

The country accounted for 1.2 percent of the world's chocolate market worth $86.4 billion in 2015, with the United States taking up 23.3 percent.

The average South Korean ate 607 grams of chocolate bars and cookies in 2015, compared with 9 kilograms of chocolate consumed by the average Swiss person.

The report showed that South Korea imported $211.4 million worth of chocolates in 2015, up 27.4 percent from $166 million tallied in 2011. Its exports soared 42.2 percent to reach $22.7 million over the four-year period. (Yonhap)