Cosmetics achieve highest ever export volume by November this year

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (Minister Oh Yoo-kyung) announced that the export volume of cosmetics from Korea from January to November 2024 was USD 9.3 billion* (tentative), surpassing the total export volume in 2021 (USD 9.2 billion), which was the highest ever, and renewing the record high.

• Source: Korea Trade Statistics Promotion Agency ** (’21) USD 9.2 billion → (’22) USD 8 billion (-13.0%) → (’23) USD 8.5 billion (+6.3%)
  → (Until November ’24) USD 9.3 billion *** An increase of USD 100 million over the entire export amount of USD 9.2 billion in ’21, the year when exports were the largest Cosmetics exports have shown continuous growth* for the past 9 years since 2014, and the export growth trend continues this year, recording exports of over USD 1 billion in October.
• Annual export amount: (’14) USD 1.8 billion → (’17) USD 4.9 billion → (’20) USD 7.6 billion → (’23) USD 8.5 billion ** Monthly trend of cosmetics exports in 2024: (Until June 2024) USD 4.8 billion → (July 2024) USD 830 million → (August 2024) USD 820 million → (September 2024) USD 920 million → (October 2024) USD 1.04 billion → (November 2024) USD 920 million The expansion of our cosmetics exports can be said to be the result of the industry’s efforts to develop products tailored to local markets such as the US and Japan with excellent quality and reasonable prices, and the government’s efforts to secure export competitiveness, such as regulatory innovation and global regulatory harmonization. In addition, the spread of K-content through Korean dramas, movies, and social media (SNS) is interpreted as having further expanded the global presence of our cosmetics. Oh Yoo-kyung, Commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, said, “With only one month left in the year, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our cosmetics industry for their efforts in achieving the highest export amount ever,” and emphasized, “We will strengthen cooperation channels between countries and support domestic companies’ development of innovative products through reasonable regulatory improvements so that our industry can continue to grow in cosmetics exports.”

With cosmetics exports reaching an all-time high through November, Director Oh Yu-kyung will hold a meeting with small and medium-sized exporters at the Korea Kolmar Integrated Research Institute (located in Yangjae-dong, Seoul), a cosmetics manufacturer, on December 2nd at 2:00 PM.

At this meeting, we will encourage the industry’s efforts to promote exports and listen to the regulatory difficulties faced by small and medium-sized exporters. We will also discuss support measures to expand overseas expansion of our cosmetics.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated that it will continue to actively pursue regulatory diplomacy with major cosmetics exporting countries such as China and the United States, and will do its best to continuously provide information on overseas regulatory trends in various countries in line with export diversification so that high-quality domestic cosmetics can smoothly advance into overseas export markets.

Editor. Hong Se-yeong