Korea reviewing plan to expand label-free mandate to foreign-produced bottled water

The government is reportedly reviewing plans to expand the label-free mandate for domestically produced drinking water to include bottled water brands imported from overseas, officials said Sunday.

The plan was discussed in a recent meeting with importers of foreign-produced bottled water, according to the officials from the environment ministry.

The meeting was a routine consultation with industry officials, and the ministry is still undecided on whether to apply the mandate to offshore brands, they added.

Korea has required all bottled water produced and sold domestically to be label-free starting early this year, replacing physical labels with QR codes on bottle caps and external packaging.

The mandate is expected to reduce the country’s annual plastic usage by 2,270 metric tons, according to the ministry of climate, energy and environment.

Bottled water produced overseas, however, is excluded from the mandate and is sold with traditional labels.

Domestic producers have raised equity concerns, arguing that competing products in the same market should be subject to the same standards.

As of September 2024, there were 63 drinking water producers in Korea, along with 107 importers of bottled water. The domestic market for bottled water has grown by an annual average of 7.6 percent since 2019, reaching $4.3 billion in 2024, according to data from Samil PwC Business Research, a local consulting agency.