SEOUL, June 21 — South Korea became the world’s third-largest exporter of cosmetics products in 2020 with its trade balance in the sector remaining in the black for nine straight years, Yonhap news agency reported Monday.

The country exported US$7.57 billion worth of cosmetics goods last year, up 16.1 per cent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

South Korea’s exports were third in the world, trailing France and the United States.

The Asia’s fourth-largest economy posted a $6.4 billion surplus in the cosmetics trade last year, up from a surplus of $5.41 billion a year earlier.

Last year’s surplus in the cosmetics trade accounted for 14.3 per cent of South Korea’s overall trade surplus of $44.87 billion.

The percentage was up from 13.6 per cent in 2019, 7.1 per cent in 2018 and 4 per cent in 2017.

Cosmetics exports to China came to $3.87 billion in 2020, taking up 50.3 per cent of the total. Shipments to Russia, Kazakhstan, Japan, Britain, Canada and the United States also went up.

South Korea exported cosmetics products to 160 countries last year, compared with 137 countries a year earlier.

South Korea’s cosmetics output, however, amounted to 15.2 trillion won ($13.4 billion) in 2020, down 6.8 per cent from the previous year, according to the data. — Bernama