SEOUL: The ongoing dessert craze for Dubai chewy cookies, better known by the local shorthand dujjonku, has unexpectedly driven early morning rushes at blood donation centres in South Korea.
The Busan Blood Center under Korean Red Cross Blood Services launched a one-day event on the morning of Jan 23, offering 650 dujjonku cookies at 13 blood donation centres across the city, according to news reports.
Earlier on Jan 16, eight blood donation centres operated by its Seoul branch, including those near Seoul Station and in the Hongdae area of Seodaemun-gu, handed out 50 dujjonku cookies each to donors on a first come, first served basis.
A total of 668 people donated blood throughout the day, more than double the 308 donors a week earlier, officials said.
“I never really cared about donating blood before, so it was kind of embarrassing to come just for the dujjonku,” said 21-year-old college student Kim Jo-eun, who recently donated blood for the viral cookie.
“I should probably donate blood more often, even when it is not about dujjonku.”
Riding on the dujjonku boom, the giveaway events came amid a winter blood shortage attributed to reduced outdoor activity, school vacations and seasonal influenza.
Since early December 2025, the stockpile of red blood cell products has fallen below 30,000 units, a level considered sufficient for fewer than five days, data showed.
The number of blood donors has also steadily decreased, from 214,446 in January 2024 to 188,617 a year later.
“The events aim to attract teenagers and people in their 20s, as well as first-time blood donors,” a KRC official said. “We plan to continue rolling out a variety of giveaway promotions to encourage blood donations.”
The organisation is also running a blood donation campaign through Jan 25 offering photo cards of K-pop group Enhypen to donors who give whole blood or platelets at its blood donation centres at Gangnam station, Sinchon-dong, Seodaemun-gu and Seongsu-dong in Seoul. - The Korea Herald/ANN
