The government will push to expand the entry of consumer goods such as food, cosmetics, and fashion into China. It plans to make this year a turning point for a rebound in consumer goods exports to China through social media platform marketing, pop-up stores in major cities, and the opening of new distribution channels.
According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) on the 21st, Minister Kim Jung-kwan of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) held a "consumer goods exports to China review meeting" with Kang Kyung-sung, KOTRA president, commercial attachés at missions in China, and KOTRA China regional trade center heads.
At the meeting, first-half performance in consumer goods exports to China was reviewed. Exports of consumer goods to China peaked at $9.3 billion (about 12.9 trillion won) in 2021 and have since steadily declined. In the first half of this year, however, they rebounded to $3.44 billion (about 4.8 trillion won), up 8.7% from a year earlier.
By item, fashion apparel and food each rose 33.4% and 17.7%, leading the export increase. Cosmetics also turned to growth in June, rising 23.8%. By region, overall growth is evident. Central Hubei province (+378%), northeastern Liaoning province (+69%), southern Hainan province (+62%), northern Beijing city (+46%), western Shaanxi province (+33%), and eastern Anhui province (+15%) all posted sharp gains.
KOTRA's proactive support produced these results. In fact, Company H, a ramen manufacturer, opened an online store on Douyin (China's TikTok) through an agent last year, but faced closure due to a lack of marketing experience. After joining the April launch of the Qingdao K-consumer goods matching center, it received online marketing support, and its monthly sales grew more than tenfold from 100,000 yuan (about 20 million won) to the current 1.05 million yuan (about 220 million won). First-half exports came to $1.67 million (about 2.3 billion won).
To solidify the rebound in consumer goods exports to China this year, the government plans all-out support in the second half for region-specific entry within China. It will run marketing that reflects the latest local consumption trends, including live commerce broadcasts on social media platforms. It will also install K-consumer goods pop-up stores in major cities to broaden offline trial opportunities.
In addition, through the "one trade office–one distribution network partnership project," it set a goal to open 10 new local distribution networks as well as large ones such as JD.com and Alibaba. It will also set up "K-consumer goods logistics desks" in inland areas such as Chengdu and Xi'an to build a logistics support system connecting the coast to the interior.
Kang Kyung-sung, KOTRA president, said, "With a favorable economic cooperation mood taking shape after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Oct. last year and the Korea-China summit in Jan. this year, consumer goods exports to China, which had slumped since 2022, finally began to rebound this year," adding, "As K-consumer goods are a key pillar of South Korea's export diversification, we will do our best to establish them as a new export growth engine."