Home-cooking boom adds kick to new sauce lines

[Graphics by Song Ji-yoon and Minu Kim]

As the cost of dining out continues to rise, more people are choosing to cook at home, prompting the South Korean food industry to quicken the release of various sauce lines. This trend has been notably influenced by individuals who previously enjoyed dishes like Malatang at restaurants and are now recreating them at home. As a result, Korean food companies have successively launched Chinese cooking sauces.

According to sources on Monday, imports of Chinese sauces hit a record high in 2023 to total 75,806 tons, with sauces imported from Hong Kong also setting a new record at 7,104 tons. This increase in the import of Chinese cooking sauces reflects Koreans’ diversifying taste buds.

“Since overseas travel resumed in 2023 and there has been an increase in overseas travel content on platforms such as YouTube, there has been a higher preference for foreign cuisines. there has been a 70 to 80 percent increase in imports of food ingredients following the Covid-19 pandemic,” a food industry insider said.

[Courtesy of Sempio]

Chinese cuisine has particularly captivated Koreans, with dishes such as Malatang and Tanghulu enjoying immense popularity among elementary and middle school students and leading to a surge in the import of Chinese food ingredients. Restaurants rely 100 percent on imported Chinese cooking sauces, and the recent spike in dining-out costs led to noticeable demand among consumers to cook Chinese dishes at home, which has not gone unnoticed by the food industry.

Ottogi has been one of the most notable beneficiaries of this trend. Having exclusively imported Lee Kum Kee oyster flavored sauce since 1996, Ottogi has gradually expanded its product line to include Doubanjiang and Malatang sauces. Not satisfied at resting there, Ottogi launched a ready-to-use Malatang sauce in January 2024 as it starts to produce and sell its own line of sauces.

Korean sauce company Sempio also entered the fray, recently launching its Chinese cooking sauce brand Chao Chai with a total of 11 products that was developed over a period that exceeded five years.