alchedek February 2025

In 2024, South Korea’s exports maintained a surplus for 18 consecutive months and recorded export growth for 14 consecutive months since October 2023. As of the first half of 2024, South Korea showed the highest export growth rate among the top 10 exporting countries in the world at 9.1%, demonstrating that the growth engine did not stop despite the uncertainty in the global external environment. The so-called K-brand, including key items such as semiconductors and automobiles, as well as plants, nuclear power, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, agriculture and Food and cultural content, is strengthening its competitiveness and seeking new possibilities under a bright outlook. In this January issue, we aim to introduce the current status of our country’s export expansion and those leading the way in pioneering emerging markets. Additionally, we…

Cosmax Group maintains its position as the global leader in the cosmetics ODM industry through technological prowess and proactive overseas market entry strategies. Cosmax Group(hereafter Cosmax) supplied export products worth approximately 600 billion won to over 3,300 domestic and international clients in 2024. Considering that client companies export these products at four to five times the supply price, it is estimated that Cosmax accounts for about 20% of K-Beauty’s export value. Along with the globalization of K-Beauty, Cosmax’s export value has also shown a steep increase, from $144.84 million in 2022 to $207.64 million in 2023, a growth rate of 43.3%. When converted to consumer prices, this export volume is valued at over $1 billion. Given that most of Cosmax’s products are indirectly exported through client companies and thus not…

Korea Health Functional Food Association: The Hub of Growth for the ‘Health Functional Food’ Industry, a Future High-Value Growth Industry As health functional foods gain attention as a future high-value growth industry, their influence is expanding across the pharmaceutical, bio, food, and cosmetics industries. The domestic health functional food market, which recorded 4.8936 trillion won in 2019, grew to 6.2022 trillion won last year, with over 80% of households purchasing health functional foods at least once. Korea Health Functional Food Association, representing the domestic health functional food industry, has been taking on the central role in the industry. Since the implementation of the ‘Health Functional Food Act’ in 2004, it has been carrying out various projects aiming at the sound development of the health functional food industry and the promotion…

The Center of Biotechnology Preserving the Nobility of Life, KRIBB Having undergone innovative development through the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the Information Revolution, humanity is now looking forward to the fourth wave, called the Bio Revolution. At the center of this new era of bio-revolution is biotechnology, which pioneers a better tomorrow through relentless exploration and challenges concerning life. KRIBB, a representative government-funded bio-research institution in Republic of Korea, was established as the Genetic Engineering Center in 1985. It moved to a new building in Daedeok Research Complex in 1990 and became an independent legal entity as the Biotechnology Research Institute under the Basic Science Research Institute in 1995. In 2001, it was renamed to its current name, the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology. Currently, KRIBB…

‘NO Melatonin’, the natural sleep drink ‘Sleeping Bottle’ that helps with comfortable sleep MUSKA’s ‘Sleeping Bottle’ has become the first sleep drink in the country to surpass cumulative sales of 1.5 million bottles. Sleeping Bottle can be found in famous department stores, duty-free shops, franchise pharmacies nationwide, as well as online malls. It is also receiving a hot response overseas through famous distribution channels such as Amazon and Walmart, and local home shopping sales. With a capacity of 100mL, it can be carried on board an airplane, making it a perfect solution for those who have trouble sleeping due to long flights. Currently, convenience store entries are also being coordinated. The sleep rhythm improvement drink Sleeping Bottle is classified as a ‘food’. It is a general beverage that can be…

Leading the Protection of Companies’s Intellectual Property Rights, Enhancing Overseas Competitiveness, and Improving National Intellectual Property Competitiveness The Korea Intellectual Property Protection Agency(KOIPA), a specialized public institution for the protection of intellectual property, was established under Article 55-2 of the ‘Invention Promotion Act’ to promote dynamic innovative growth and a fair economic order in our country. Under the mission of ‘contributing to the enhancement of national intellectual property competitiveness and the development of the national economy’, it has put forward three strategies: ▲creating a foundation for the activation of domestic intellectual property rights protection ▲strengthening support for overseas intellectual property rights protection ▲promoting management innovation based on public value. It provides various services for the protection of domestic and international patents, trademarks, designs, and trade secrets of our companies and…