Last year, annual exports of the bio-health industry exceeded $15 billion for the first time, and the double-digit growth rate continued following 2020.
Annual exports in the bio-health sector last year amounted to $16.236 billion, an increase of 16.9% from a year ago, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (motie).
The Motie explained that the influence of Korean biosimilars in developed countries has expanded, as well as demand for Covid-19 test and exports of medical devices.
However, in recent years, the growth has been greatly reduced due to the base effect of the expansion of export of diagnostic kits in 2020.
0.7% from a year earlier. The growth remained single digit at 7.0% year-on-year in December, but exports reached an all-time high of $1.901 billion.
Compared to annual exports, it rose by $2.4 billion from $13.88 billion in 2020, rising to the $16 billion mark, but the growth rate dropped significantly from 55.9% to 16.9%.
In 2020, the bio-health industry achieved the second-highest growth after computer (57.2%) among the 20 major export items selected by the Motie, while 12 sectors, more than half, recorded negative growth rates.
However, last year, while all 20 items recorded double-digit growth, the growth rate of bio-health was the 7th lowest.
In particular, while Korea’s total exports fell 5.5% in 2020, they surged 25.8% last year, recording a higher growth rate than bio-health.
Despite achieving an all-time high last year, the share of the bio-health industry of the 20 export items has been further reduced from 2.7% to 2.5%.
