KOTRA Switches to 'Online Consultation' After Overseas Exhibition Cancellations

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] As overseas exhibitions are being canceled one after another due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), KOTRA has switched to online consultation meetings to support small and medium-sized enterprises.

On the 9th, KOTRA announced that it is conducting video consultations by gathering Korean companies participating in the Korea Pavilion at the Cosmoprof Beauty Exhibition in Bologna, Italy. Cosmoprof is the world's largest beauty exhibition, originally scheduled for March, postponed first to June, and then delayed again to September. With overseas exhibitions being postponed or canceled due to COVID-19, local buyers are also facing great difficulties in discovering suppliers.

Since January, KOTRA has jointly attracted trade offices and buyers worldwide to prepare about 270 consultations during the Cosmoprof exhibition period. As the exhibition was postponed twice, KOTRA converted business consultations into video format. The video consultations involve eight European trade offices centered on the Milan trade office, as well as trade offices from Latin America, CIS, and Africa regions. A total of 23 companies and 90 video consultations are being conducted.

A representative of a domestic company conducting business consultations with overseas buyers through a video consultation hosted by KOTRA. Photo by KOTRA

Italy, the host country of the Cosmoprof exhibition, has virtually suspended all economic activities except for pharmacies and grocery stores. A buyer from Italy participated in this video consultation meeting hoping to supply Korean cosmetics to large pharmacy chains such as Lloyds and DM.

Beautex, planning to open a Korean specialty cosmetics store in Slovakia, also joined the video consultation meeting. Beautex is building an online sales network and will start with a Korean product specialty pavilion project.

Jae-won Ryu, Head of KOTRA's Trade Infrastructure Division, said, "The approach to overseas marketing is changing due to COVID-19," and added, "We will continue to provide urgently needed online exhibition halls and video consultation services for our companies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.