Non-alcoholic, low-calorie beverages gain popularity in Korea

On the 19th, consumers are browsing beers at the liquor section of Lotte Mart’s Zetta Flex Seoul Station branch. [Courtesy of Lotte Mart]

Non-alcoholic and low-calorie beverages are gaining popularity in South Korea, thanks to the growing “healthy pleasure” trend whereby consumers are prioritizing health without compromising on experiences. This trend has now seeped deeply into the country’s drinking culture, leading beer companies to introduce alcohol-free or low-alcohol and low-calorie products.

According to market tracker Euromonitor, South Korea’s non-alcoholic beer market, which was worth only 1.3 billion won ($973,000) in 2012, reached 41.5 billion won in 2021. The market is expected to grow further to 70 billion won this year and surpassing 100 billion won by 2027. The current law allows beverages with an alcohol content of 1 percent or less to be labeled as either non-alcoholic or low alcohol.

If the market for beers with lower alcohol content is included, the overall size of the market is expected to expand even more.

A few years ago, non-alcoholic beers were often overlooked due to a perception that they lacked flavor. Consumers tended to dismiss them as “inferior alternatives” to regular beverages since they did not offer the effects of intoxication. But the rise of the “healthy pleasure” trend, which was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, led consumers to choose healthier options. As a result, beverage companies have significantly improved the quality of non-alcoholic and low alcohol beers, which has helped boost sales.

According to the OECD, the annual alcohol consumption among Koreans aged 15 and older was 7.7 liters in 2023, continuing a gradual decline. This is a significant drop from the peak consumption of 16.8 liters in 1973, with the figure falling to 7.9 liters in 2020, and is an indicator of a general reduction in alcohol consumption across society.

The Korean government also supported this trend by relaxing regulations in May 2024 to allow non-alcoholic beer to be supplied to restaurants. Alcohol distributors could previously only distribute beverages with more than 1 percent alcohol content and with this restriction now lifted, restaurants can now offer non-alcoholic drinks to their customers. Although restaurants may be limited in how much non-alcoholic products they can stock initially, industry experts believe that the market will expand as regulatory hurdles are removed.

Leading the charge in Korea’s non-alcoholic beverage trend is OB. OB only had one low-alcohol option, “Cass Light,” in 2019, but offers six varieties, including the low alcohol “Michelob Ultra” and non-alcoholic drinks such as “Cass 0.0,” “Hoegaarden Zero,” “Hoegaarden 0.0 Rose,” “Budweiser Zero,” and “Cass Lemon Squeeze 0.0,” today. Thanks to this expanded product lineup, OB’s non-alcoholic beverage sales grew by 9.8 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Tsingtao has also added to its product lineup with “Tsingtao Non-Alcoholic” and “Tsingtao Non-Alcoholic Lemon.” Meanwhile, HiteJinro continues to dominate the local non-alcoholic beer market with its “Hite 0.00,” first introduced in 2012 and with 138.5 million cans sold by the end of 2023.

HiteJinro recently launched its new low-calorie beer, “Terra Light,” in early July 2024, lowering the alcohol content to 4 percent and reducing calories by one-third. The product saw strong sales, with the 10 million bottles sold in just two weeks translating to 8.2 bottles sold every second.