Ready Meals Just to Get By Are a Thing of the Past... Food Industry Accelerates 'Premiumization of Ready Meals'

Olga Whole Food's 'Crispy Pork Loin Sweet and Sour Pork Made with Domestic Pork'.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] As the COVID-19 pandemic prolongs, the number of consumers seeking Home Meal Replacements (HMR) has increased, bringing changes to the HMR market. For consumers who want to enjoy restaurant-quality meals at home, HMR, which used to prioritize convenience, is now becoming more premium.

According to the food industry on the 1st, CJ CheilJedang’s ‘Gourmet Premium Pizza’ sold 1 million units within two months of its launch. Released in December last year, the ‘Gourmet Premium Pizza’ reflects the taste and quality that consumers desire through digital big data analysis. Additionally, through collaboration with Schwan’s Company in the U.S., which possesses advanced manufacturing technology, they received advice on dough formulation and process optimization to achieve a taste comparable to specialty pizza restaurants.

The domestic frozen pizza market, based on Nielsen Korea data, grew from 83.5 billion KRW in 2017 to 94.3 billion KRW in 2018 but sharply declined to 67.6 billion KRW in 2019. This was due to manufacturers’ lack of experience and technology, resulting in taste and quality inferior to dining out. However, last year, the market rebounded to 92 billion KRW due to increased demand for convenience foods amid the rise of ‘homebodies.’ This trend is expected to continue, with the frozen pizza market projected to grow to 110 billion KRW this year.

CJ CheilJedang plans to focus on expanding the perception that ‘Gourmet Pizza = Delicious Pizza’ and aims to double its sales compared to last year, establishing itself as a key player in revitalizing the market.

As consumers’ standards for HMR rise, Restaurant Meal Replacements (RMR), which bring restaurant dishes directly to consumers, are also gaining popularity.

Orga Wholefoods, a subsidiary of Pulmuone, launched ‘Crispy Pork Loin Sweet and Sour Pork made with Domestic Pork,’ allowing consumers to easily enjoy the taste of Chinese cuisine specialty restaurants at home. Amid difficulties in dining out, this product enables consumers to enjoy authentic flavors without complicated cooking processes. Following the ‘Chili Shrimp’ launched in October last year, Orga plans to continue the popularity of healthy Chinese cuisine convenience foods with this new product.

'Warehouse 43,' operated by bhc, released the ‘Premium Marinated Beef Rib Lunchbox.’ The premium marinated beef rib lunchbox features marinated beef ribs using the same meat quality as Warehouse 43, accompanied by six side dishes including stir-fried anchovies with chili peppers and seasoned cod roe with deodeok root, two types of salad, seaweed soup, and black rice, creating a high-quality menu.

This lunchbox is popular among office workers in office districts near Warehouse 43 stores, with strengths in menu quality, composition, and freshness due to cooking upon order. Especially, weekday lunch orders are high. The Warehouse 43 lunchbox is a takeout and delivery-only product sold at 17 directly operated stores nationwide and can be ordered via Naver reservation, store visits, or phone.

Fresh Easy launched five representative Hong Kong dishes as part of the third installment of its ‘Missing the City’ project, which offers overseas travel destination menus as meal kits, targeting consumers longing for overseas travel amid COVID-19.

The Hong Kong edition is the third global convenience food product following the Thailand edition in October and the Italy edition in December. The five Hong Kong meal kits include ‘Hong Kong-style Cereal Shrimp,’ ‘Fish-fragrant Eggplant,’ ‘Twice-cooked Pork,’ ‘Mala Dandan Noodles,’ and ‘Hong Kong-style Egg Tart,’ focusing on recreating authentic local flavors.

Director Geunmo Koo of Fresh Easy’s Product Development Center said, “Fresh Easy leverages the advantages of meal kits optimized to deliver the original taste of dishes, releasing exotic products that consumers have not been able to experience with home-cooked meals.” He added, “As ‘Missing the City’ is a global RMR project aiming to meal-kit all the world’s cuisines, we will continue to develop a wider variety of menus.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.