Korean trade body positive on K-beauty’s India expansion

New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANSlife) As India wakes up to the Korean beauty or K-beauty wave, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) headquartered in Seoul tells IANSlife that it sees many cosmetic companies willing to invest in burgeoning Indian beauty market.”Korean women are introduced to beauty the same as Indian women. In Korea, women start using beauty products very early. They are not very expensive but very trendy, so cosmetic companies make different product ranges,” Hanna Kim, Deputy Director for KOTRA Southwest Asia, told IANSlife here.She added that in India, the customers are diverse, and K-beauty products fit the Indian market perfectly.For South Korea-India trade relations, K-beauty is just the latest market entrant, as they also deal big in automobiles and technology, cases in point being Korean brands like L.G., Hyundai, Kia and Samsung.As per Kim, many K-beauty brands are trying to make more investment in India. “India is a fast-growing market, so they want to sell or invest in India.” The interest spells itself with the sheer number of K-beauty brands that KOTRA brought in during their 2019 Korea-India Economic Cooperation Fair for Mutual Prosperity last week. How does KOTRA come in?The trade body researches about the local market and arranges business-to-business opportunities. That’s not it, it also represents Korean companies who cannot send their personnel to India. It’s next focus area? K-beauty. –IANSsj/soni/lh