Lotte under fire for allegedly copying popular Nongshim snack

Lotte Wellfood's Nogari Chip, left, and Nongshim's Muktaekkang / Courtesy of Lotte Wellfood and Nongshim

By Kim Jae-heun

Lotte Wellfood, the confectionery unit of Lotte Group, is causing consternation as some critics say the firm has allegedly copied Nongshim's popular snack “Muktaekkang,” according to industry officials, Monday.

Lotte said it will introduce its “Nogari Chip” product early in September to compete with Muktaekkang, which has been a great seller. But it is currently facing criticism that its new product is too similar, specifically its packaging and product concept.

Both snacks use dried pollack as the base material. The difference is that Nongshim used full-grown dried fish whereas Lotte used young dried fish.

They both suggest pairing the snack with mayonnaise mixed with red pepper that has been harvested in Cheongyang County, South Chungcheong Province, depicted in the image shown on the product packages. “Cheongyang mayo” is the official name of the two snacks' flavors.

“It's pretty much the same concept ― Lotte plagiarized Nongshim's well-selling Muktaekkang. Nogari and Muktae are made from the same fish and they are both the most popular seafood snacks here that go well with beer. It is obvious that Lotte wants to take advantage of the current popularity of Nongshim snacks with its new item,” a 32-year-old office worker surnamed Han said.

Lotte says it started developing Nogari Chip at the beginning of this year, which is half a year before the launch of Nongshim's Muktaekkang in June.

“Nogari Chip is part of our 'Oing' snack brand series that only adopts seafood as the base material. We have been developing it at our lab since early this year. It was a coincidence that the concept of our new snack overlaps with that of Nongshim,” a Lotte Wellfood official said.

“About the packaging, we took the concept from a common pub we found in Euljiro, where people eat dried pollack with Cheongyang mayo. We just made that scene into an image and printed it on the snack's packaging,” the official added.

Nongshim is indifferent about Lotte's new snack launch.

“We don't really care. There is not much we can say about another company's new product,” a Nongshim official said.