Fruit consumption is picking up in South Korea as retailers remove the hassle of peeling and slicing. Sales of pre-cut fruit have jumped across the retail sector.
Only 22.1% of respondents aged 6 and older eat the recommended daily 500 grams or more of fruit and vegetables, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's 2024 National Health Statistics released on the 23rd. That is down 11 percentage points from 33.1% in 2016. Among women in their teens and 20s, fewer than 10% meet the recommended intake.
Experts point to the inconvenience of preparing fruit, alongside high prices, as a main barrier to consumption. Single-person households numbered 10,272,573 as of last year, or 42.3% of all households, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's 2026 Public Administration and Safety Statistical Yearbook. As more people live alone, a whole watermelon or a full box of apples often goes partly uneaten and ends up thrown away, while the preparation itself becomes a burden.
Retailers are absorbing that demand quickly and reshaping their shelves in the process. E-Mart (139480.KS) turned sliced watermelon, previously a summer-only item, into a year-round product. Sliced watermelon sales rose 49.2% from a year earlier in the January-May period, while sliced melon sales gained 10.8%.
Lotte Mart broke watermelons down into half, quarter and one-eighth portions and began selling durian with only the flesh separated out, sparing shoppers the difficult prep work. The chain's sliced watermelon sales surged 103.2% year-on-year in the January-May period. That is why pre-cut fruit sections in plastic containers have expanded noticeably next to the piles of whole watermelons and melons.
Department stores are competing to widen their cutting services. Use of Lotte Department Store's Easy Fresh fruit-cutting service jumped 90% from a year earlier in the January-August period. The service cuts watermelon, melon and pineapple at five stores including the Jamsil outlet, and on-the-spot cutting service use rose 65%.
Shinsegae Department Store's pre-cut fruit sales rose 58% year-on-year in the January-August period, more than double the 20.6% growth in its overall fruit sales. Hyundai Department Store (069960.KS) is expanding its cutting service from watermelon to pears and apples.
The convenience store market has shifted as well. GS25's pre-cut fruit sales rose 27.6% from a year earlier in the January-August period, outpacing the 20.3% growth in total fruit sales. The chain sells about 40 items ranging from fruit cups and sliced watermelon to unconventional offerings such as apples paired with peanut butter, and it launched six new pouch-style cut-fruit products this month.
At CU, fruit cup sales jumped 32.6% in the January-August period, and the number of stores with fresh-fruit cutting kiosks grew to 54 in August from eight in January. Online, the trend is the same. Kurly's convenience fruit sales rose 55% in June from a year earlier, while sliced watermelon sales surged 74%.
Pre-cut fruit, with skins and seeds removed, is also drawing consumers as a way to cut food waste, another factor behind the shift.
