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Number of firms in Korean food business drops in 2024, gov't data finds

Published: 28 Jul. 2025, 16:42

A banner promoting Korean cuisine, or hansik, is displayed at a trade show held in southern Seoul on June 30, 2025. [YONHAP]

The number of restaurants and companies engaged in the Korean food, or hansik, business slightly dropped from a year ago in 2024, government data showed Monday.

A total of 504,657 businesses were operating in the local market for traditional Korean food as of the end of December, down 1.6 percent from 512,979 a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Food Promotion Institute.

By business type, restaurants serving Korean cuisine accounted for the vast majority of 91 percent, at 460,219 businesses. The remaining 44,438 businesses were Korean food products and drink manufacturers, data showed.

Employees working in the Korean food businesses totaled 1.3 million, up 0.8 percent on-year.

Of them, 1.08 million worked in the restaurant sector, while 214,286 were employed at manufacturing businesses.

The number of restaurants and bars serving hansik and sales generated from Korean menus dropped by 2.1 percent and 3.9 percent on-year, respectively.

In contrast, the number of Korean food manufacturing businesses grew 3.5 percent, while sales generated from selling Korean food products jumped 17.1 percent during the cited period.

The share of respondents that said Korean dishes served at restaurants were close to traditional Korean cuisine fell 1.9 percentage points to 80.7 percent, data also showed.

Yonhap