Korean Cosmetics Shine at Hong Kong Beauty & Wellness Expo
This year's Beauty & Wellness Expo offered an appropriately healthy blend of innovative and traditional approaches to staying young and fit, with many European/US and Asian brands jostling to win over longevity-minded show-goers. Co-located with the Food Expo, the Home Delights Expo, the International Tea Expo and the Chinese Medicine & Health Products show – all organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) – the event enjoyed steady traffic, with exhibitors having plenty of opportunities to win over trade buyers and the ever-keen end-users.
Over at the Korean and Taiwan pavilions, the stall-holders seemed particularly pleased with the reception they received. Acknowledging the success of the event, Yongsuk Kim Max, Assistant Manager of The Ocean, the co-organisers of the Korean Pavilion, said: "One of our participating businesses, MiJin Cosmetics, has met with 20 potential business partners, including companies from Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. All of them were either keen to source raw materials from them or to use their OEM services.
Over recent years, Hong Kong has enjoyed a steady growth in its level of cosmetics and toiletry imports, with many companies keen to use the city as a showcase for their products. Frequently, this was a prelude to their launch into the hugely lucrative China market, as well as into many of the other fast-growing economies across Southeast Asia.
In total, the level of Hong Kong's cosmetics and toiletry imports grew by 2.4% in 2015. This increase was spread across a wide range of categories, including skincare products, make-up, manicure and pedicure sets, personal-care travel packs, hair, bath and oral hygiene products and scent sprays.
One trend that arrived in Hong Kong as a precursor to later going truly global was K-Beauty, a shorthand term for the wide range of South Korean beauty products that have now won international renown – partly on account of their use of such singular ingredients as snail gel, gold and even diamonds. With South Korea now the world's fourth-largest skincare market, last year the country exported some US$7.1 billion worth of cosmetic products, maintaining its average 8.2% growth into a fifth year. It was no wonder, then, that the country was quite so well-represented at this year's event.
Over at the Korean and Taiwan pavilions, the stall-holders seemed particularly pleased with the reception they received. Acknowledging the success of the event, Yongsuk Kim Max, Assistant Manager of The Ocean, the co-organisers of the Korean Pavilion, said: "One of our participating businesses, MiJin Cosmetics, has met with 20 potential business partners, including companies from Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. All of them were either keen to source raw materials from them or to use their OEM services.
Over recent years, Hong Kong has enjoyed a steady growth in its level of cosmetics and toiletry imports, with many companies keen to use the city as a showcase for their products. Frequently, this was a prelude to their launch into the hugely lucrative China market, as well as into many of the other fast-growing economies across Southeast Asia.
In total, the level of Hong Kong's cosmetics and toiletry imports grew by 2.4% in 2015. This increase was spread across a wide range of categories, including skincare products, make-up, manicure and pedicure sets, personal-care travel packs, hair, bath and oral hygiene products and scent sprays.
One trend that arrived in Hong Kong as a precursor to later going truly global was K-Beauty, a shorthand term for the wide range of South Korean beauty products that have now won international renown – partly on account of their use of such singular ingredients as snail gel, gold and even diamonds. With South Korea now the world's fourth-largest skincare market, last year the country exported some US$7.1 billion worth of cosmetic products, maintaining its average 8.2% growth into a fifth year. It was no wonder, then, that the country was quite so well-represented at this year's event.