Korean Cosmetics Export Growth: A 10-Year Trend
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Bottom line: on HS 3304 data, Korean cosmetics export growth took annual exports from USD 2.44 billion in 2015 to USD 9.42 billion in 2025, a 3.86-fold rise (14.5% a year on average), while China’s share fell from 40.7% to 17.5% and the US share rose from 8.5% to 18.6%.
The table uses Korea’s HS 3304 exports (beauty, make-up and skincare preparations) as reported to UN Comtrade, with the shares of four key markets calculated from the same data. Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) figures for all cosmetics in 2020–2025 are added as a cross-check.
Korean cosmetics export growth by year
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| Year | HS 3304 exports (USD million) | Change | China share | US share | Hong Kong share | Japan share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2,439.4 | - | 40.7% | 8.5% | 24.8% | 4.6% |
| 2016 | 3,436.9 | +40.9% | 36.2% | 8.7% | 31.4% | 4.5% |
| 2017 | 3,907.0 | +13.7% | 37.5% | 9.4% | 24.7% | 5.0% |
| 2018 | 4,923.5 | +26.0% | 40.9% | 8.7% | 21.0% | 5.2% |
| 2019 | 5,322.3 | +8.1% | 45.8% | 8.1% | 14.8% | 6.4% |
| 2020 | 6,112.4 | +14.8% | 49.8% | 7.9% | 10.0% | 9.0% |
| 2021 | 7,660.6 | +25.3% | 53.9% | 8.6% | 6.4% | 8.7% |
| 2022 | 6,687.4 | -12.7% | 45.9% | 10.5% | 5.1% | 9.3% |
| 2023 | 7,181.9 | +7.4% | 33.1% | 14.2% | 6.1% | 9.3% |
| 2024 | 8,566.6 | +19.3% | 25.2% | 18.1% | 6.0% | 9.8% |
| 2025 | 9,424.9 | +10.0% | 17.5% | 18.6% | 6.3% | 9.3% |
HS 3304 exports · Korea, 2015–2025 · Source: UN Comtrade · ACCESSED 2026-10-16 · USD billion
Definitions, sources and access date
- Scope: UN Comtrade, reporter Korea (code 410), exports, HS 3304, partner World, annual FOB value in US dollars. Million-dollar figures are rounded from the dollar values; the raw 2015 figure is USD 2,439,361,644 and 2025 is USD 9,424,919,335.
- Market shares divide each partner’s exports by the World total in the same dataset, for example 2025 US: 1,750,009,080 ÷ 9,424,919,335 = 18.6%.
- Year-on-year changes and the average annual growth rate (2015 to 2025, ten years) are calculated from the annual values above.
- Cross-check, MFDS total cosmetics exports (USD thousand): 2020 7,572,097 · 2021 9,183,570 · 2022 7,953,197 · 2023 8,462,378 · 2024 10,177,312 · 2025 11,417,570. The scope is wider than HS 3304, but the pattern of a single decline in 2022 is the same.
- Sources: UN Comtrade https://comtradeplus.un.org/ (example API query: https://comtradeapi.un.org/public/v1/preview/C/A/HS?reporterCode=410&period=2025&cmdCode=3304&flowCode=X) · MFDS press release, 22 May 2026: https://www.mfds.go.kr/brd/m_99/view.do?seq=50010
- Data accessed: 16 October 2026
What changed over ten years
Scale. Only one of the eleven years shows a fall: 2022, down 12.7%. Exports grew again from 2023, passed the 2021 level in 2024 and reached USD 9.42 billion in 2025, the highest in the series.
Dependence on China. China’s share peaked at 53.9% in 2021 and then fell for four straight years to 17.5% in 2025. In value terms, exports to China went from USD 4.13 billion in 2021 to USD 1.65 billion in 2025.
The rise of the US. The US share stayed between 7.9% and 9.4% from 2015 to 2021, then rose every year from 2022 and overtook China at 18.6% in 2025. Exports to the US grew from USD 0.21 billion in 2015 to USD 1.75 billion.
Hong Kong and Japan. Hong Kong’s share dropped from 31.4% in 2016 to 5.1% in 2022 and stood at 6.3% in 2025. Japan’s share doubled from 4.6% to 9.3%.
Put together, Korean cosmetics have moved from a trade concentrated in one or two markets to a much broader spread of destinations.
For an importer, that matters in two ways: popular Korean products are now sought by buyers in more regions at the same time, and Korean suppliers are dealing with a wider range of destination rules and documents. Keep in mind that these are value figures; they do not show sales by brand or product.
Related reading: Korean cosmetics exports by country · Skincare vs make-up export share · K-beauty export seasonality
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