"During This Chuseok Staying Home, Treat Your Pets to a Lavish Meal Too~"

Reduced Holiday Travel Due to COVID-19
Rising Popularity of Chuseok Items for Pets
Food Industry Launches Full-Scale Pre-Sale Promotions

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Saeng-hye] This Chuseok, due to the impact of the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), overseas travel and hometown visits are expected to decrease significantly, leading to an increase in people spending time with their pets. Accordingly, demand for pet-exclusive Chuseok food and snack packages, as well as pet hanbok, is also rising. Online pet malls operated by food companies are offering special Chuseok feast packages and actively running discount events.

On the 25th, Dongwon F&B announced that its online pet specialty mall 'Chuchu.com' has been holding the 2020 Chuseok Feast event from the 21st through that day. This event offers a half-price discount when purchasing large quantities of Nutri Plan cans, a collaboration between Dongwon and the webtoon Pozzatun. Seventy popular snacks including Nutri Plan, Cesar, and Chao Churu are also discounted by up to 87%. A Dongwon F&B official said, "Thanks to various Chuseok commemorative events besides this package, Chuchu.com's cumulative sales from the 1st to the 20th of this month increased by 30% compared to the previous month."

Harim Pet Food, a subsidiary of Harim, also launched a 20% discount event on gift sets called 'A Chuseok Full of Happiness for Dogs and Cats' from the 14th to the 27th. The 'Dog Table' set, which includes food and snacks such as The Real Gold Duo, Grain-Free Oven-Baked Beef, Jerky Chicken Breast, Puff Original, Slim Chicken Breast, and a food bowl, is discounted from the regular price of 30,000 KRW to 24,000 KRW. The 'Cat Table' set, including The Real Grain-Free Cat Crunch, Slim Chicken Breast, three types of Creamy snacks, and a food bowl, is discounted from 50,000 KRW to 40,000 KRW.

A Harim Pet Food official explained, "Recently, the pet humanization trend, where pets are treated like people, has become widespread, and consumption for pets is steadily increasing. Following this trend, we first launched gift sets for pets during last year’s holidays, and sales have been rising every holiday season." Notably, this year they also diversified sales channels for holiday gift sets to convenience stores such as CU.

Duman, a human-grade natural raw food brand for dogs operated by Goobne, is currently selling the 'Dangdang Full Moon Package' on its online mall. This special event offers a 50% discount on a total of 21 packs of Duman nutritional special meals, reducing the price from 68,400 KRW to 33,900 KRW. A Duman official stated, "To celebrate Chuseok, we prepared this special event so consumers can purchase Duman products at an affordable price. This set has shown sales 260% higher than other special packages and is gaining popularity."

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the domestic pet-related market size was recorded at 1.8 trillion KRW as of 2015. As awareness and interest in pets gradually increase, the market size this year is estimated to have grown more than threefold to approximately 5.8 trillion KRW.