South Korea’s online food market jumped more than 35 percent to touch an all-time high in 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed.

The value of online food transactions in Asia’s fourth-largest economy stood at 58.5 trillion won ($48.8 billion) last year, up 35.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea and industry sources.

The tally covers online transactions of food, groceries, farm produce, meat and fisheries goods, as well as food delivery services.

Last year’s surge was attributed to a sharp increase in contact-free consumption in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Mobile shopping stood at 49.3 trillion won last year, or 84.3 percent of the total, with internet shopping taking up the remainder. (Yonhap)