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| Philips Twin TurboStar oversized airfryer / Courtesy of Philips Korea |
By Jun Ji-hye
Air fryers have become a must-have item for Korean households amid the growing wellbeing trend as more consumers seek to make deep-fried foods without using oil, consumer product analysts said Wednesday.
According to market researcher Euromonitor, the sales volume of air fryers in the domestic market was 287,100 in 2018, up by 285.9 percent from the previous year.
The growth of the Korean market was notable, given that the growth rate of the global market for air fryers during the same period was 13.9 percent.
Analysts attributed the rapid growth to development of the home meal replacement (HMR) market and a decrease in prices in addition to the feature of the products enabling users to enjoy fried foods without going through complicated cooking processes.
"The scale of the domestic HMR market was $2.1 billion in 2018, which doubled compared to 2011," said James Kang, home and tech analyst at Euromonitor International. "The growth of the HMR market has exerted influence not only on the grocery market but also the home appliance market, leading to a rapid increase in sales of small appliances such as air fryers and microwaves."
The world's first air fryer product was released by Phillips in 2011. At the time, the product was considered innovative but less popular because of its high price of about 400,000 won ($357).
The product began to be popularized here when other companies, including Korea's discount chain operator E-mart, joined the move and released similar products at cheaper prices.
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| E-Mart Traders' The Airfryer Plus / Courtesy of E-Mart |
Kang said, "The prices of air fryers have fallen to about 100,000 won over the past year, reducing the burden on consumers," adding that diversification of capacity of the products has also contributed to increasing sales.
Users have been actively sharing various recipes utilizing air fryers through social media for not only fried dishes but also for baked fish and roast pork as well as toast.
Some users said when using air fryers, they could make more delicious food compared to when using microwaves.
The product has been also popular among one-person households as it can be used to heat up leftovers.
The air fryer market is expected to continue to grow, given that the sales volume has kept increasing.
According to Euromonitor, the sales volume in the Korean market rose from 30,600 in 2015 to 39,500 in 2016 to 74,400 in 2017 and to 287,100 in 2018. Euromonitor expects sales to reach 1.42 million in 2023.
In the Korean air fryer market, E-Mart held the highest market share of 51.3 percent in 2018, followed by Daewoo Electronics' 21.9 percent and Phillips Korea's 6 percent.
