Scientist develops cosmetics for Muslims
By Yoon Sung-won
Kang Dong-kyoon
An agricultural science researcher has developed cosmetics technology using rice as the primary ingredient, in an effort to revitalize Korea’s sluggish domestic rice industry.
“The most memorable moment was when we finally succeeded in selling our rice fermentation technology to Brunei last year,” the 41-year-old said.
Kang Dong-kyoon has been working for 17 years as a researcher at Agricultural Research and Extension Services in North Gyeongsang Province. During his career, Kang and his team conducted research on several agricultural products, including ginseng, apple, and sweet potato.
Last September, Kang headed a team to finalize a technology-transfer contract with Landevel, a cosmetics firm in Brunei. Thanks to the contract, the agricultural agency earned 100 million won ($88,613) in prepayments. The cosmetics company will also pay 2 percent of its turnover every year until 2032, according to the agency.
“The project aimed to create more added-value to revitalize the sluggish domestic rice industry. Developing rice cosmetics technology came up as a viable plan because it can upgrade the range of rice industry to enter the functional, well-being segment,” Kang said.
Annual per capita rice consumption plunged 24 percent, from 93.6 kilograms to 71.2 kilograms, between 2000 and 2011. In a government effort to improve the situation, Kang and his colleagues worked to develop a cosmetics technology using rice as the main ingredient.
“The global market for functional cosmetics has seen steady growth during the last decade. For example, the size of the global market for anti-aging cosmetics products expanded from $31 billion to $46.3 billion between 2001 and 2010. Our team discovered an opportunity in these statistics.”
Kang said acquiring Halal certification to trade in the Arab world was the hardest part of the technology transfer. “Halal” is the Arabic word for lawful and refers to things considered appropriate for Muslims to eat, drink or use, under Islamic law. Goods with non-Halal ingredients may not be used or traded in the Muslim world.
To access the Southeast Asian kingdom where more than 60 percent of residents are Muslim, Kang and his team acquired Halal certification from the Brunei government on Oct. 25, 2012. Brunei is known to have the firmest standards for certification in the Islamic world.
“Islam is the world’s third-biggest religion with 1.6 billion believers. And the market size for the Halal-certified cosmetics is estimated to reach $5.6 billion,” Kang said. “Strictness of the Muslim certification system provides a clean and safe image for certified goods, raising their popularity even among non-Muslim customers worldwide.”
With bright prospects in the Muslim market, Kang said the Halal-certified cosmetics business will see success in coming years.
“The Halal-certified rice cosmetics products are expected to record more than $100 billion in sales by 2015,” Kang said. “We also aim to hold more than a 10 percent share in the cosmetics market for Muslims in the next two years.”