Korean Cosmetics Exports by Country: 2025 Top 10
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Bottom line: in 2025 the United States (USD 2.18 billion) overtook China (USD 2.02 billion) as the largest market for Korean cosmetics exports by country, and the top 10 markets took 70.7% of total exports of USD 11.42 billion.
The figures come from the official statistics release on 2025 cosmetics production, exports and imports published by Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) on 22 May 2026. A narrower product view, HS 3304 (beauty, make-up and skincare preparations) as reported to UN Comtrade, gives the same order.
Korean cosmetics exports by country: 2025 top 10
Cosmetics exports · by destination market · Source: MFDS, cosmetics production, export and import statistics, released 2026-05-22 · ACCESSED 2026-10-16 · USD million (chart) · USD thousand (table)
Swipe sideways to see the whole table.
| Market | 2025 exports (USD thousand) | Change vs 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 2,184,198 | +15.0% |
| China | 2,018,311 | -19.0% |
| Japan | 1,086,741 | +4.9% |
| Hong Kong | 697,726 | +20.4% |
| Vietnam | 476,437 | -10.0% |
| Russia | 442,664 | +9.1% |
| Taiwan | 345,853 | +19.8% |
| UAE | 286,490 | +67.2% |
| Poland | 282,408 | +111.7% |
| Thailand | 251,392 | +11.4% |
| Total (202 markets) | 11,417,570 | +12.2% |
Definitions, sources and access date
- Scope: MFDS table “Korea’s cosmetics exports by country” (USD thousand; underlying data from Korea Customs Service and the Korea International Trade Association). It covers all cosmetic types under Korea’s Cosmetics Act, including skincare, make-up, hair and body cleansing products. The chart values are the thousand-dollar figures rounded to USD million.
- The 70.7% top-10 share is the sum of the ten markets in the table (USD 8,072,220 thousand) divided by the total (USD 11,417,570 thousand); it matches the figure in the release text.
- 2025 shares of the total: United States 19.1%, China 17.7%, Japan 9.5%, Hong Kong 6.1%, Vietnam 4.2%, Russia 3.9%, Taiwan 3.0%, UAE 2.5%, Poland 2.5%, Thailand 2.2%.
- The release text gives Poland’s growth as 115% and the UAE’s as 70.6%, while the attached table shows 111.7% and 67.2%. This article uses the table.
- HS 3304: UN Comtrade, reporter Korea (code 410), exports, 2025, HS 3304, FOB value in US dollars by partner. Taiwan is recorded as “Other Asia, nes” (code 490). HS 3304 excludes perfumes (3303), hair products (3305) and cleansing products, so it is smaller than the MFDS figure.
- Sources: MFDS press release, 22 May 2026: https://www.mfds.go.kr/brd/m_99/view.do?seq=50010 · UN Comtrade: https://comtradeplus.un.org/ (API query: https://comtradeapi.un.org/public/v1/preview/C/A/HS?reporterCode=410&period=2025&cmdCode=3304&flowCode=X)
- Data accessed: 16 October 2026
What buyers should take from it
The US and China have swapped places. In the MFDS table, exports to the US grew 15.0% while exports to China fell 19.0%. The narrower HS 3304 data gives the same order for 2025: USD 1.75 billion to the US against USD 1.65 billion to China.
Greater China is still a large block. China, Hong Kong and Taiwan together took USD 3,061,890 thousand in 2025, or 26.8% of the total. Hong Kong grew 20.4% and Taiwan 19.8%, holding fourth and seventh place.
The fastest growth among the top 10 came from Poland (+111.7%) and the UAE (+67.2%), and the number of destination markets rose from 172 to 202.
Registration and labelling rules also differ by market, so the faster a market is growing, the earlier it pays to check its pre-market requirements.
Related reading: Korean cosmetics export trend · Skincare vs make-up export share · Hong Kong imports of Korean cosmetics
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See also: Exports to the CIS, Gulf and SE Asia