Taking President Lee Jae-myung's state visit to Brazil as an opportunity, K-beauty corporations are accelerating their push into Brazil, the world's No. 3 cosmetics market. The export map of K-beauty, which reduced reliance on China and expanded to the United States and Europe, is now extending to Latin America.
According to the industry on the 26th, President Lee Sang-mok Amorepacific Holdings(002790), CEO Kim Byung-hoon APR(278470), Goodai Global CEO Cheon Joo-hyuk, and CEO Kim Sung-woon SILICON2(257720) will attend the Korea-Brazil business roundtable on the 28th (local time) in São Paulo, Brazil. Consumer goods and distribution are on the agenda alongside manufacturing and infrastructure and high-tech industries. It is seen as unusual that so many top executives from cosmetics companies are on the economic delegation.
Brazil is viewed as an attractive market in terms of size. Based on Euromonitor data cited by the Korea Health Industry Statistics System (KHISS), Brazil's cosmetics market this year is expected to reach $34.1 billion, maintaining the No. 3 spot after the United States ($117.7 billion) and China ($71.0 billion). According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, small and midsize corporations' cosmetics exports to Latin America in the first half of this year totaled $120 million, up 131.9% from a year earlier.
Moves by leading K-beauty corporations toward emerging markets are also speeding up. Amorepacific Co. first introduced Laneige in Mexico and Mise-en-scène and Ryeo in Brazil in 2023, then expanded Laneige's footprint to Chile and Colombia, and this year to Brazil and Peru. APR, led by Medicube, has sequentially entered Brazilian drugstores and specialty curated shops, and has also expanded into major Latin American countries such as Mexico, Argentina, and Ecuador. Goodai Global began selling three brands—Beauty of Joseon, TirTir, and SKIN1004—through Sephora Brazil's online and offline channels starting this month.
On Feb. in connection with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's visit to Korea, the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety signed a regulatory cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and began supporting K-beauty exports.