[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s bottled water market was valued at 740 billion won (US$656 million) last year, up 15.5 percent from the previous year, industry data showed on June 14.

According to the data from Nielson Korea, some 640 billion won worth of bottled water was sold in the country in 2015. Last year’s figure is also up 47.6 percent from 2012 when the country’s bottled water sales first topped the 500 billion won mark with 501 billion won.

The upward trend has been continuing, with some 217 billion won of bottled water sold from January to April, up 11.4 percent from the same period last year, the data showed.

The market is expected to grow to as much as 1 trillion won by 2020, as more Koreans live alone and seek clean water amid growing concerns over pollution, experts said.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)