Why Is Spam So Popular in Korea? The Story Behind Korea's Famous Spam Gift Sets

Walk into a Korean supermarket or department store before Chuseok or Seollal, and you may see something that makes foreign visitors stop and look twice.

Beautiful gift boxes stacked everywhere.

Blue, gold, and premium-looking packaging.

And inside?

Spam. Lots of Spam.

For visitors from countries where Spam is usually thought of as cheap canned meat, the obvious question is:

"Wait... Koreans actually give Spam as a gift?"

Yes, we do.

And it's not a joke.

Spam gift sets have been a familiar part of Korean holiday culture for decades. The reason makes much more sense when you look at Korea's history—and how the meaning of a "good gift" has changed over generations.

Spam gift sets displayed for Chuseok at a supermarket in South Korea.

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Spam Wasn't Always an Everyday Food in Korea

To understand Korea's relationship with Spam, we need to go back to the Korean War and the difficult years that followed.

Food was scarce, and meat was especially difficult for many ordinary families to obtain.

American military bases had processed foods that were unfamiliar to most Koreans at the time—sausages, canned beans, cheese, and Spam among them. Some of these ingredients eventually found their way into local communities and Korean cooking.

That history is also closely connected to the development of budae jjigae (부대찌개), or "army base stew," which combined ingredients such as Spam and sausage with Korean staples like kimchi and gochujang.

Today, opening a can of Spam isn't particularly exciting.

But imagine Korea several generations ago, when meat was expensive and difficult to get.

A canned meat product that could be stored for a long time had a completely different meaning.

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From American Military Food to a Korean Household Staple

Spam eventually moved from military-base associations into ordinary Korean supermarkets and kitchens.

In 1987, CJ CheilJedang began manufacturing Spam locally under license from Hormel, helping transform it into a mainstream consumer product.

And Koreans found plenty of ways to eat it.

Slice it, fry it, and serve it with hot white rice.

Put it into kimchi jjigae.

Add it to fried rice.

Roll it into gimbap.

Coat slices with egg and pan-fry them as a simple side dish.

Spam's salty, savory flavor works surprisingly well with the structure of a Korean meal—particularly rice and kimchi. That compatibility helped it become something more than an imported novelty.

Fried Spam served with rice, kimchi and egg in a typical Korean meal.

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But Why Give Spam as a Chuseok Gift?

This is where the story becomes especially interesting.

Korean holiday gifts have always reflected the economy of their time.

After the Korean War, practical ingredients such as sugar, flour, and seasonings could be valuable gifts because these everyday products weren't always easy to obtain.

By the 1960s, even a large bag of sugar could be considered a premium holiday present.

As Korea became wealthier, gift preferences changed.

Coffee, cosmetics, clothing, cooking oil, canned tuna, and eventually canned ham appeared in increasingly elaborate holiday gift boxes.

Canned ham and tuna became particularly popular gift choices during the 1980s. Spam's local production began in 1987, right in the middle of that changing consumer culture.

So today's Spam gift set is partly a survivor from that period.

It's a little piece of Korea's rapid economic transformation sitting inside a blue box.

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Practicality Is Part of the Appeal

There's another reason Spam gift sets survived while many other gift trends disappeared.

They're useful.

You don't need to eat everything immediately.

The cans are easy to store.

Most households know exactly what to do with them.

And a gift set can be shared among family members.

That's important because Korean holiday gifts don't always need to be luxurious. A gift can also say:

"Here's something your family can actually use."

That same thinking explains why Korean supermarkets around Chuseok and Seollal are filled with gift sets containing canned tuna, cooking oil, shampoo, toothpaste, soap, and other surprisingly practical products.

VISITKOREA even lists Spam, tuna and toiletry sets among common Korean holiday gifts.

Korean holiday gift sets with Spam, tuna, cooking oil and household products.

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Do Koreans Really Still Want Spam Gift Sets?

Yes—but that doesn't mean everyone is sitting at home hoping someone gives them 20 cans of Spam.

Korean holiday gifting has become much more diverse.

Fruit, hanwoo (Korean beef), health supplements, gift cards, premium seafood, traditional sweets, wine, and many other options compete for attention.

Still, processed-food gift sets remain surprisingly resilient.

A Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey cited in 2025 found that 22.2% of respondents selected processed-food gift sets, behind fruit, health supplements, and meat.

And there's a very modern twist.

After the holidays, unopened gift sets sometimes appear on Korean secondhand marketplaces.

Spam included.

So yes, receiving Spam is normal.

Whether the recipient eats all of it is another question.

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Spam Isn't the Only "Strange" Korean Holiday Gift

If you're visiting Korea before Chuseok, spend a few minutes looking around a supermarket gift section.

It's almost a cultural experience by itself.

You may find beautifully packaged sets containing:

• Spam and canned tuna
• Cooking oil
• Premium fruit
• Hanwoo beef
• Dried mushrooms
• Seaweed
• Red ginseng and health products
• Shampoo, toothpaste, and soap

To a foreign visitor, putting toothpaste in a fancy gift box might seem unusual.

But that's exactly the point.

Korean holiday gift culture has long balanced respect, presentation, price, and practicality.

Different Chuseok gift sets including Korean beef, fruit, health products and Spam.

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What Should a Foreigner Give for Chuseok?

If a Korean family, colleague, or friend invites you to celebrate Chuseok, don't feel that you need to arrive carrying a giant box of Spam.

The appropriate gift depends heavily on your relationship with the person.

For parents or someone you want to show special respect to, quality fruit, health products, or premium food can work well.

For coworkers or acquaintances, something smaller and practical may be perfectly appropriate.

And if you're simply invited to someone's home, bringing a thoughtful food or dessert to share can often feel more natural than trying to imitate a formal corporate holiday gift.

The most important thing is the gesture.

You are not being tested on your ability to shop like a Korean grandmother.

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Visiting Korea During Chuseok?

If you've never experienced Chuseok before, Spam gift sets are only one tiny piece of the holiday.

Chuseok is Korea's major harvest festival—a time associated with family reunions, ancestral traditions, Songpyeon rice cakes, holiday foods, and traditional activities.

I've written separate guides explaining both the meaning of the holiday and the traditions families enjoy.

👉 Start here: Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving): Traditional Meaning & Best Cultural Experiences for Foreign Travelers

And if you're curious about Songpyeon, Ssireum, Yutnori, and other traditional activities, check out my guide to Traditional Chuseok Games and Songpyeon as well.

Korean Chuseok celebration with Songpyeon and traditional holiday gifts.

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A Simple Gift with a Bigger Korean Story

For foreigners, receiving Spam as a holiday gift might seem a little unusual at first.

But in Korea, it doesn't feel strange at all.

What began as an unfamiliar canned meat in the difficult years surrounding the Korean War eventually became part of everyday Korean cooking. Decades later, Spam also found its place in the gift sets exchanged during Chuseok and Seollal.

Today, Korea has countless luxury gift options—from premium Hanwoo beef and fruit to health products and expensive seafood. Yet Spam gift sets are still easy to find every holiday season.

Perhaps that's because they represent something Koreans have long valued in a gift: something practical, familiar, and useful for the whole family.

And that's what makes this seemingly ordinary canned ham interesting.

It isn't just about Spam.

Its journey in Korea reflects how Korean food, lifestyles, and even the meaning of a holiday gift have changed along with the country itself.

So if you're visiting Korea before Chuseok or Seollal and notice shelves filled with Spam gift sets, take a closer look.

What might seem like an unusual gift to a foreign visitor is actually a very familiar part of modern Korean holiday culture.