South Korea’s iconic pie snack Choco Pie sold 92 billion won ($80.9 million) worth in Vietnam last year, beating sales at its home, its maker Orion said.

Orion’s all-time bestseller Choco Pie sales in Vietnam jumped 15 percent on year to total 92 billion won last year, equivalent to 600 million pies, which was the largest since the pie snack first entered the Southeast Asian country in 1995.

In Korea, the company sold 370 million pies worth 83 billion won in the same period.

Vietnam has become the second country after China, where Choco Pie is consumed more than in Korea. The country has large growth potential as a snack market as half of its 95 million populations are those under 30s, core confectionery consumers.

Orion won the heart of Vietnamese consumers with the small round chocolate-covered snack filled with marshmallow inside by launching the “Tinh” campaign. Tinh means empathy and amicability among people, and the Korean snack giant has relied on the similar marketing scheme at home that contributed much to make Choco Pie become a signature Korean snack.

As part of its campaigns in Vietnam, Orion handed out 300,000 pies to students who took the state-administered college entrance exam last year and organized collaborated projects with local fashion houses to draw more attention from younger consumers.

Choco Pie now is one of the most popular snacks in Vietnam that even appears on the table for a memorial ceremony for ancestors, the company said. Orion targets to raise its annual sales in the country to over 100 billion won, said a company official.

Choco Pie’s cumulative sales in global markets topped 5.24 trillion won last year since its first release in 1974. It sold over 2.3 billion pies last year alone in nearly 60 countries.

By Shim Hee-jin and Lee Ha-yeon

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