'집콕' 생활에 밀키트 소비 급증

Social distancing has kept people from eating out as much, so there's been a surge in popularity of meal kits for cooking at home.
They make it easy by packing all the ingredients you need, chopped up and ready to go.
Kim Cheong-ah has this report.
Open the packet, place the contents in a pan, heat them up, then enjoy. Meal kits already contain everything you need, even complicated Korean dishes.
With people staying at home a lot more due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, demand for these meal kits has skyrocketed.
"I use these meal kits about three times a week because of the pandemic. I especially like the beef brisket and dakgalbi dishes."
The meal kit industry is big business.
The Korea Rural Economic Institute expects the market to reach three-point-four billion U.S. dollars this year alone.
FreshEasy, a specialist company, has seen its revenue in August skyrocket two-hundred-43 percent on-year, while SSG.COM saw its sales shoot up two-hundred percent and Emart one-hundred-39%.
This factory in Gyeonggi-do Province produces up to one-hundred-thousand meal kits a day.
Three years ago, its main products revolved around steak and pasta, but now the menu has become much more diversified to include everyday Korean meals like soft tofu stew and spicy stir-fried pork.
"We will try our best to provide our consumers with high quality products in this expanding market."
With the Korea Rural Economic Institute expecting the domestic market for meal kits to surpass six-hundred million U.S. dollars by 2024, or grow by nearly seven times, food companies are all vying for their share of the pie.
KIM Cheong-ah, Arirang News.