Coffee’s popularity in Korea continues soaring

Coffee imports to South Korea last year increased by almost 50% compared to the previous year.

According to figures from the Korea Customs Service, the value of the nation’s coffee imports in 2022 was 1.2 billion dollars from January through November, which is an increase of 45% over the previous year.

This is the first time South Korea’s annual coffee import exceeds 1 billion US dollars. The quantity in 2017 increased almost 17 times from the numbers 20 years prior.

The country is also nearing a total of 100,000 total coffee shops in the nation which is only second to Korean restaurants in terms of the number of businesses.

The number of coffee shops around the nation has doubled in the past four years.

It also surpassed the number of chicken restaurants for the first time in 2021.