The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency(KOTRA) says shipments of beauty products quadrupled between 2013 and 2017, making the product category a key driver of exports.

A newly released report from the agency says South Korea exported four-point-96 billion U.S. dollars worth of cosmetics last year.

That's the equivalent of 19 percent of auto components exports, 51 percent of household appliances exports or nearly 65 percent of mobile phone exports.

The Greater China region was the largest market for South Korean cosmetics at three-point-26 billion dollars, followed by Southeast Asia at 530 million dollars and North America totaling 470 million dollars.

KOTRA said the number of cosmetics manufacturers increased from just under two-thousand-500 in 2012 to more than eleven-thousand-800 in 2017.