K-Beauty is to cosmetics what K-Pop is to the world of music. A reworked version – adapted to local tastes, refreshed and rich in multiple influences, particularly Japanese – of what big international labels were offering until then. And with this original and innovative offer, the Land of the Morning Calm has recently established itself as the world’s third-largest cosmetics exporter after France and the United States.

With a double-digit growth of its cosmetic exports in 2020 compared to the previous year (+15% according to data from the Korean Customs Service and the Korean Cosmetics Association [1]), South Korea is now one of the world’s leading exporters of cosmetics. In absolute value, Korean exports amounted, according to the same sources, to US$6.12 billion in 2020, while imports dropped by 0.7% to US$1.07 billion.

With a different basis of calculation, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety estimates the increase in exported beauty products at +16.1% in 2020 vs. 2019, or US$7.57 billion in value.

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