China viable market for Pakistani cosmetic products

BEIJING: The exports of Pakistani cosmetics to Chinese customers, particularly the Muslim community would be a good opportunity for the Pakistani products, as China has a huge and approachable market, an official said.

Ahmad Zafar, director of Beauty Expert (Pvt) Ltd, said: “China is a huge market and it is an approachable market, as well. Targeting the Muslim community is a viable option in China. We have a plan in the near future to export our products.”

“If we talk about Pakistani mindset about choosing a cosmetics product, they prefer foreign products over local brands,” Zafar said, adding that this is a problem faced by most domestic cosmetic brands in Pakistan.

“[The] Pakistani cosmetics products that are exported to foreign countries get positive reviews and feedback from their markets, but Pakistani perception is a bit against [the] local products.”

A few years ago, China’s cosmetics companies also faced such problems, while in recent years, some indigenous brands have become trendy among the Chinese consumers.

“In recent years, especially during the Covid-19 period, China’s domestic cosmetics industry has made great progress. The annual output value has exceeded RMB 1 trillion,” said Sheng Jie at the China International Beauty Expo (CIBE) held recently in Beijing, who is the president of the cosmetics industry branch in the China National Association of Health Industry Enterprise Management, according to the China Economic Net.

“[The] Chinese consumers increasingly appreciate the concept of Chinese traditional medicines, so they now tend to buy cosmetics products with herbal ingredients. On the other hand, with the development of the e-commerce and short video platform, live streaming sales and internet celebrity economy catalysed the rapid growth of the domestic cosmetics industry.”

The rise of the domestic cosmetic brands in China also results from the government support. “China National Medical Products Administration has issued new regulations for the cosmetics industry, which makes the industry more and more standardised.”

“The brands with strong research and development capabilities will become stronger, while the companies who only focus on hype or have incomplete qualifications will be gradually eliminated.” Sheng Jie said, adding that the government also stressed upon the development of industrial clusters.

“Many local governments in China have built beauty industry chains. Guangzhou has a large beauty industry cluster.

Shanghai has the Oriental Beauty Valley. Zhejiang and Shaanxi provinces have Beauty Towns, and the Changping District government in Beijing is building the Future City of Beauty. Certain preferential policies, including tax reduction and talent cultivation are given to beauty companies in the region.”

“CIBE [China International Beauty Expo] is known as the cradle of national beauty brands. This year, there are exhibitors from Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. We believe that [the] brands from more countries will come here in the following years to keep pace with the Chinese beauty brands.” Jie added.