[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] CJ CheilJedang surpassed 5 trillion won in sales last year for the first time as a food company in the overseas food sector. The popularity of K-Food drove its performance and surpassed 30 trillion won on a consolidated basis for the first time this year.

CJ CheilJedang announced on the 13th that its consolidated sales rose 14.4% to 30.795 trillion won and operating profit rose 9.2% to 1.6647 trillion won last year. Excluding its subsidiary CJ Logistics, sales also rose 19.3% to 18.7794 trillion won, while operating profit rose 7.6% to 1.2682 trillion won, the largest ever.

Overseas sales in the food sector rose 18.7 percent year-on-year to 5.1811 trillion won. After reaching 3.157 trillion won in 2019, it surpassed 5 trillion won in two years, up nearly 1 trillion won the following year.

It is the United States that led the growth of overseas sales. For the first time this year, it surpassed 4 trillion won to 4.356 trillion won. About 80% of CJ CheilJedang's overseas sales in the food sector occurred in the United States. It was led by Schwans, a large U.S. food company that acquired at the end of 2018. Swans recorded sales of 3.3369 trillion won last year, up 16.1 percent from a year earlier. This is also the first time that Swans has exceeded 3 trillion won in sales.

The item that drives the increase in sales is dumplings. CJ CheilJedang's Bibigo and Swans' dumplings ranked second in the North American market with 26.9 percent by 2020, but soared to 41.1 percent last year after rising to the top for the first time in 2021. Japan's Ajinomoto, which has dominated the US dumpling market, fell to 31.3% last year.

Bibigo dumplings earned 820 billion won in sales, up 59 percent from overseas, including the U.S. Thanks to this, Bibigo's global strategic products rose 56% year-on-year to 1.6 trillion won in the U.S., China, Japan and Europe.

 

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