Latin America - primed for growth

The Latin American cosmetics market, and Brazil in particular, is enjoying a surge in global importance. Cosmetics Business reports on the key regional players

Latin America is proving to be one of the most intriguing and exciting markets globally for beauty and personal care products. “The Latin American cosmetic market grew 20% in 2010, so now it is a market of US$64m – almost as big as the north American market,” says Jaime

Concha Prada, who recently served as president of CASIC, the Chamber of the Latin American Cosmetics Industry. “The market has almost tripled in size since 2000,” he adds.

According to Euromonitor International, the total retail value of beauty and personal care products (BPC) sold in Latin America (including Mexico, Central and South America) in 2010 was $64.94bn, making up 17% of the global market of $382.19bn. While Latin America is still only the fourth largest market in the world, behind the Asia Pacific region (26.6%), western Europe (25.6%), and North America (17.7%), it is Latin America’s growth in this sector that is exciting.

Indeed Latin America’s BPC market has been more dynamic than every other region, and it won’t be long before Latin America replaces North America as the third largest market in the world. Between 2005 and 2010, the Latin American cosmetics market doubled, increasing by $32.37bn to $64.93bn, up $32.56bn. Meanwhile Asia Pacific regional sales grew from $69.26bn to $101.83bn; interestingly an almost identical increase of $32.56bn. In 2005 Latin America made up 11.5% of the global market, but in the subsequent five years it gained 5.5% of the market share, making it the only region to gain ground apart from Asia Pacific, which increased its market share by 1.9%, according to Euromonitor.