South Korea’s coffee market is forecast to continue to grow, despite growing concerns over market saturation.

The country’s coffee imports marked 52,660 tons from January-May this year, up 13.6 percent from the same period a year ago, according to the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. Coffee imports have continued double-digit growth for the past five years, it added.

Industry watchers say that there is more room to grow in the coffee market, seeing new pockets of consumption from the fast-growing market for small machines that can produce a cafe-quality brew and high-grade espresso grounds.

Lee Dae-woo, a coffee columnist, said the trend of the domestic coffee market is slowly shifting away from the out-of-home retail market to the at-home segment.

“Countries with a long history of brewing culture, including Japan and France, have shown that their consumption gradually moved from cafes to people’s homes and offices,” Lee said.

“The number of cafes went down, but overall, the industry figures grew explosively, which means that more people will start enjoying premium coffee at home.”

Over the past decade, the country has become a major battleground for coffee chains. South Korea is home to over 12,300 coffee shops nationwide, according to reports.

With the continued economic downturn, however, consumers are tightening their budget and so more people are opting for home brewing.

In response to the change of consumer habits, major roasters such as Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Tom N Tom’s are entering the in-home coffee market more aggressively than the past, introducing quality instant coffee pockets and espresso machines.

Coffee pod producers, meanwhile, say South Korea is a viable market for capsule coffee and expects to see very strong demand in the future.

Premium coffee maker Nespresso has witnessed its sales grow 30 percent every year in Korea since introducing capsule coffee machines in 2007.

By Suk Gee-hyun (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)