BENGALURU: Venturing beyond their existing strongholds in India - electronics and machinery, Korean investors are now keen on foraying into the Indian cosmetics market.
The global business platform, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) launched at least ten Korean cosmetics brands in India on Tuesday.
There are over 200 brands of Korean cosmetics. While some of these brands are popular in the US and China, the Indian market has not been explored before by these companies.
Speaking to Express on the sidelines of the launch here, Hansoo Park, President for KOTRA South East Asia said this was an attempt to look at the ‘soft market’. While traditionally, Korea has been involved in exports of automobiles, electronics and machinery to India, Korean investors believe that an expansion into the cosmetics industry would help in strengthening relations between the two countries.
“There are two reasons why we are looking at the cosmetics industry in India. The first being that they want to educate Korean manufacturers about India. The second is that we want to communicate with Indian people. This is an attempt to connect with Indian hearts,” Hansoo Park added.
According to inputs from KOTRA, the volume of exports from Korea to India stands at $14.5 billion and the imports at $50 billion (includes agricultural products and grains).
In the future they hope to further strengthen the trade relations with import of raw materials from India including chemicals and natural products. Hinting at Chinese companies, Park said, “We are not looking at ‘dumping’ our products here. We want to prosper together with India.”
Korea is the seventh largest exporter of products to India. Over the next two years they hoped to go up to the fifth position.
As for the cosmetics stores, they are going to be online for the time being. Ryan Park, CEO, Wish Company, one of the products to be launched at the event, said while they were looking at options for offline stores, for the time being their products would be available on Amazon and on the company’s website.