South Korea's confectionery market has steadily grown over the past five years on rising demand for sweets and candy, a government report showed Monday.

The total market value of sweetstuffs including potato chips, cookies and jelly reached 3.35 trillion won ($2.9 billion) last year, up 5.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the report compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

It marked a 30.4-percent jump from 2.57 trillion won tallied in 2011, with an average 6.9-percent on-year growth during the cited period.

Out of the total, snacks and potato chips accounted for 42.2 percent, followed by cookies with 26.4 percent and other kinds of sweets such as pies with 12.9 percent.

In 2015, exports of South Korean confectionery soared 78.5 percent to $251.6 million from five years ago, while imports jumped 37.5 percent to $243.3 million over the cited period.

The world's confectionery market totaled $221.1 billion in 2015, with South Korea's market share coming in at 1.3 percent, the report added. (Yonhap)