The number of franchised coffee branches in South Korea rose by more than 3,000 on-year in 2022 on growing demand for food and beverages with the ebbing of the COVID-19 pandemic and the expansion of budget brands, the antitrust regulator said.

The country had 26,217 franchise coffee shops as of the end of 2022, up 13 percent from the previous year's 23,204, according to data from the Fair Trade Commission.

It marked the highest growth among all kinds of food and beverage franchises in 2022.

Ediya Coffee had the largest number of branches with 3,005 shops, followed by Mega MGC Coffee with 2,156 and Compose Coffee with 1,901 branches. (Yonhap)