KOTRA and Lotte Hold Brand Expo in Paris, Achieve $63.96 Million in Export Consultations

Fifty Korean SMEs and 120 European Buyers Participate

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and Lotte Group announced on May 14 that they held the "Korea Brand Expo in Europe" in Paris, France, from the 30th of last month to the 13th, supporting the entry of Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into the European market. The event resulted in export consultations worth $63.96 million (approximately KRW 90.8 billion).

KOTRA and Lotte held the "Korea Brand Expo in Europe" in Paris, France, from the 30th of last month to the 13th. The photo shows the scene of the B2B consultation event. Photo by KOTRA

The "Korea Brand Expo" began in 2016 as a win-win program by Lotte Home Shopping to help SMEs expand into overseas markets. Since 2022, it has been expanded as Lotte’s flagship shared growth program. To date, it has been held 20 times, recording a cumulative total of 10,380 consultation cases and export consultation amounts of KRW 1.65 trillion.

This year’s event was jointly hosted by KOTRA, Lotte, and the Korea Commission for Corporate Partnership, and was held in Paris for the first time. Paris is known as a "business hub" with a high concentration of European buyers.

The scale of the event was further expanded. In particular, reflecting last year’s record-high cosmetics export performance of $10.2 billion, 60% of the participating companies were beauty brands. Fifty Korean SMEs and over 100 buyers from 13 European countries?including France, Germany, and Spain?recruited through KOTRA’s European trade offices, participated in the export consultation event. A total of 511 consultations were conducted, achieving significant results. More than 80% of the local companies that completed consultations expressed strong intentions to proceed with contracts, which is expected to lead to export results in the near future. There was also an import consultation event with five Lotte Group affiliates, including Lotte Home Shopping, Lotte Department Store, and Lotte Wellfood. In addition, a live broadcast from the Paris site was conducted through Lotte Home Shopping’s live commerce platform "L.Live," introducing products from participating companies and popular local items, which received a positive response.

There was also an opportunity to directly showcase "K-brands" in Europe. From the 30th of last month to the 11th, a B2C promotional booth was operated at the "Foire de Paris," the largest consumer goods exhibition in Europe with a 120-year history. The experience zone for popular domestic brands, such as "Gravity" hair loss shampoo developed by KAIST researchers and "LeMouton" comfortable shoes, attracted 40,000 visitors. During the event, 2,350 sales transactions were recorded, with all prepared stock selling out.

Kim Jaekyum, CEO of Lotte Home Shopping, said, "The Korea Brand Expo is Lotte Group’s representative shared growth platform that discovers outstanding Korean SME products and helps them gain a foothold in overseas markets. I am delighted that the event held in Paris for the first time concluded with positive responses from participating companies, buyers, and customers alike. We will continue to provide ongoing support to ensure that these efforts lead to tangible export results."

Kang Kyungsung, President of KOTRA, stated, "This event is an exemplary case of global export market diversification through cooperation among the government, large corporations, and SMEs. KOTRA will continue to support collaborative efforts for the joint overseas expansion of large and small companies amid changes in the global trade environment."

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