The Féderation des Entrepises de la Beauté (Febea) has announced in a press release an increase in the number of cosmetics exports. Just 7 days after announcing its "Export Plan", the trade association for companies in the sector reports a 15.6% increase in exports compared to the same period last year.
Febea highlights that this growth is mainly driven by the perfumery, make-up and skincare categories. The main recipient of these exports continues to be different countries belonging to the European Union, and although the United States is in second place, China is gaining ground.
In euros, the cosmetics sector has managed to export more than €8.5 billion during the first five months of 2023. In 2022, the figure stood at 7.4 billion euros. Exactly, of the 8.6 billion euros that the French cosmetics sector has turned over in exports, 3.4 billion euros came from countries that make up the European Union. During the first five months, which is the period so far analysed, sales in the European Union grew by more than 26% compared to the first five months of 2022.
Germany, Spain and Italy lead the European Union in growth
The EU country with the highest consumption of French cosmetic products is Germany, which recorded an increase of 22.2%. In second place is Spain, which recorded an even greater increase than Germany with 22.6%. Italy is in third place.
The United States is consolidating its position as the world's leading buyer of French cosmetics on the American market, with an increase of 15.4% compared to the previous year. Febea has indicated that 1 out of 5 French perfumery products is exported to the United States.
Although China has become the world's largest buyer of the make-up category, the rate of growth compared to the previous year and compared to the other countries consuming French cosmetics is very low. It has only grown by 1.1% compared to 2022, and exports to the Asian continent have registered a very slight increase of barely 7%. In the Middle East, the strongest growth was reported in the United Arab Emirates, which increased its purchases of French cosmetics by more than 14%.
As reported by Febea, France exports more than 60% of its total production. In 2022, French exports of beauty and cosmetics products grew by 18.8% to 19.2 billion euros. Last year, as indicated by the same entity, the cosmetics sector was the third most important sector in terms of foreign trade for France, behind only the aeronautical and wine sectors.