KOREAN NET

Cosmetics exports in this year's first three quarters hit a record-high USD 7.4 billion. Shown are visitors on Oct. 1 sampling cosmetics during Seoul Beauty Week at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul's Dongdaemun-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Kim Seon Ah

Cosmetics exports in this year's first three quarters reached a record-high USD 7.4 billion.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Oct. 11 said such shipments from the first to the third quarter bested the previous record set over the same period in 2021 (USD 6.8 billion or KRW 9 trillion) by 8.8% at USD 7.4 billion (KRW 10 trillion).

The figure was also 19.3% higher than that from the same period last year of USD 6.2 billion (KRW 8.4 trillion).

By country, China was the biggest market with USD 2 billion (KRW 2.7 trillion), followed by the U.S. with USD 1.4 billion (KRW 1.9 trillion) and Japan (USD 700 million or KRW 950 billion).

Though such exports to China declined 9.1% year on year, those to the U.S. jumped 38.6% and those to Japan 18.2%.

By product type, basic cosmetics accounted for the most exports with USD 5.6 billion (KRW 7.6 trillion), followed by color cosmetics with USD 1 billion (KRW 1.4 trillion) and personal care products USD 300 million (KRW 400 billion).

The ministry said, "We will do our best to allow consumers to use high-quality cosmetics worry-free and outstanding domestic cosmetics to smoothly advance to global markets."

sofiakim218@korea.kr