South Korea’s exports of medical and healthcare products surpassed the ten trillion won mark for the first time last year.
 
According to data from the Health and Welfare Ministry on Sunday, South Korea exported eight-point-83 billion dollars worth of medicine, medical equipment, cosmetics and medical services, up 21 percent year-on-year.
 
Exports in this sector have more than doubled over the past four years, growing an annual average of 19 percent from four-point-four billion dollars in 2011.
 
Medicine and medical supplies posted the largest growth in terms of the amount of exports, followed by medical equipment, cosmetics and medical services for foreign patients.
 
Cosmetics posted the largest increase, marking a 44 percent growth in exports thanks to the growing popularity of the Korean pop culture.
 
South Korea’s medicine exports were strong in European countries, growing by one-thousand-732 percent in Hungary, 437 percent in Switzerland, 144 percent in France and 191 percent in Finland.
 
The related industry expects the country’s exports to exceed ten billion U.S. dollars this year.