Korea's premium pet food market sees rapid growth

Korea's pet food market is getting more sophisticated, with brands appearing whose products are even more expensive than food for humans despite having the same ingredients.

Nutriplan, the pet food brand of Dongwon F&B, on Thursday rolled out two types of its premium canned dogfood Holic: white tuna and vegetable fruit and chicken breast and vegetable fruit.

An 85g can of either Holic product goes for 3,000 won ($2.10), double the price of Dongwon Tuna cans of the same volume sold on the online shopping mall Coupang ranging from 1,380 to 1,500 won each.

To develop this item, the company's researcher specializing in pet food set nutritional standards. Dongwon F&B said it added 200 million postbiotics per can to improve a dog's intestinal health and bodily immunity.

Last year, the company saw pet food sales jump 50% to 30 billion won. Its target for this growingly profitable market by 2025 is 100 billion won.

In May this year, Korea's top poultry producer Harim launched the high-end pet food product The Real Raw, a 360-gram pack of dog food made from freeze-dried raw chicken priced at 46,000 won. This is 10 times more expensive than ordinary pet food.

Korean Ginseng Corp. sells healthy pet food under the brand Ginipet, featuring the six-year-old red ginseng from the company's famous Cheonkwanjang brand as a key ingredient.

Write to Soo-Jung Ha at agatha77@hankyung.com