Saeukkang (also called Shrimp Cracker) is a South Korean snack produced by South Korean company Nongshim since 1971. Around 90g of prawn crackers (around 4-5 sheets) are packaged in parchment paper.[1][2]
'Saeu' translates to shrimp in Korean. When Nongshim President Shin Choon-ho was looking for an appropriate name for the shrimp snack, he got an idea from his daughter mispronouncing Arirang, pronouncing it 'Arikkang' .[3]
The Nongshim company got ideas from the popular Japanese snack Kappa Ebisen made by Calbee. Nongshim spent more than a year attempting to reverse engineer the Kappa Ebisen snack and had particular difficulty with finding an appropriate temperature to cook the product. The company used large amounts of flour and shrimp during this process, using around 360 tons of flour.[4]
Using the slogan We make our foods using our technology, Saeukkang was highly successful upon release and helped Nongshim, which previously had a low market share, to grow into what is now among the largest food and beverage companies in South Korea. Many trucks from all around South Korea traveled to Nongshim's factory in Daebang-dong to buy Saeukkang. Only three months after the initial release, Nongshim's sales had already increased by 350%. With their increased income, Nongshim was able to release other successful snacks: Banana Kick in 1978, Honey Twist Snack in 1979, and Potato Chip in 1980. As of 2013, Saeukkang's sales exceeded 7.5 billion packages. Saeukkang can now be found in 76 countries in stores like Walmart in the United States[5] and Taobao in China.
Nongshim produces different variants of Saeukkang. Other than the standard package (90g), the company introduced different sizes of Saeukkang:
Nongshim also offers Saeukkang in different flavors:
Lee Jong-suk, a Korean actor and model advertises Saeukkang.
Since the initial release of the snack, it has been advertised with the slogan "손이 가요~ 손이 가~새우깡에 손이 가요" (loosely translated as "Grab some here, grab some there. Grab Saeukkang anywhere".[6] The slogan has been so successful that it is still used in Saeukkang ads today.
There are about 100 Saeukkang fan clubs in Korea's largest web portal, Naver, consisting of both younger and older generations.[4]
