Korea's retail industry has entered a competition over summer foods ahead of the full-fledged heat that follows the monsoon season. Retailers are moving to capture summer demand by promoting seasonal fruits, health foods, and farm-direct delivery services.
According to the retail industry on the 11th, Lotte Mart and Lotte Super began the first sales of "Summer King," a 2026-season summer early apple, on the same day. Summer King is a pure domestic variety with higher sugar content and richer juice than the existing Aori apple. Sales will begin first at 30 Lotte Mart stores, including the Lotte Mart Zettaplex Jamsil branch, and expand to all stores from mid-July.
E-mart is selling summer seasonal foods through "Order to Home," a service that delivers products ordered on the E-mart app directly from production areas, until the 15th of this month. The company has also expanded its product lineup to include Daeseok plums in season, waxy white corn, and domestic freshwater eel.
Coupang is also placing weight on sales of watermelon, a representative summer fruit. Coupang has secured about 130 tons of high-sugar watermelon and is offering watermelons with a sugar content of 11 brix or higher, along with "Haetsare Daolchan Honey Watermelon." To this end, it secured large volumes from Gochang in North Jeolla Province and Eumseong in North Chungcheong Province, Korea's leading high-quality watermelon production areas.
In particular, Coupang secured and stockpiled watermelons before the monsoon season began. The measure took into account that watermelons can absorb excessive moisture and lose sugar content during the monsoon season. In addition, the company used an artificial intelligence (AI) sorting system to precisely analyze the sugar content, moisture content, and internal condition of the watermelons. It is also applying the AI sorting system, previously used for tangerines, Korean melons, and tomatoes, to watermelons and peaches starting this year.
Kurly is also continuing to expand its convenient fruit lineup in the "Kurly Only" category. At "The Purple Selection," a premium fresh food specialty section featuring season-limited products available only in early summer, it sells organic seedless Gyeongjojeong grapes.
GS Shop is likewise entering the summer food market with health foods and frozen fruits. Starting this month, through TV home shopping and its mobile app, it is presenting a wide range of health foods such as samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) and duck, along with frozen fruits including frozen mango and blueberries. In particular, at the end of July, it has scheduled chef Jung Ho-young's "Duck Health Meal Set" for broadcast.
"During the hot summer, demand rises simultaneously for health foods for managing health and for cool snacks that beat the heat," said Park Kyung-ho, head of the food team at GS Shop. "We will actively target the summer market by proposing both health foods that hotly replenish energy and frozen fruits that coolly beat the heat."
