Chongqing Drives Beauty Industry Growth, Cultivating Products for Aesthetic Consumption

In recent years, Chongqing beauty products have been steadily introduced to the market, garnering positive consumer feedback. (Photo/Chongqing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology)

Chongqing - The rise of "beauty economy" and "aesthetic consumption" has given birth to a new consumer demographic, driving continuous innovations in the beauty industry within the daily consumer goods sector. The national beauty consumption market has surpassed 500 billion ($68.56 billion) yuan.

The Chongqing Beauty and Health Industry Ecological Development Alliance was officially launched on April 18. A total of 28 entities, including beauty and health brands, companies, research institutions, and financial organizations in Chongqing, have become the first members of the alliance, aiming to collaboratively develop the beauty industry and cultivate emerging consumer goods from Chongqing.

Although the development of Chongqing's beauty industry started later than in the central and eastern regions of China, its market potential is significant, and several districts and counties have already begun taking action in this new sector.

In recent years, Tongliang District, in collaboration with the Guangzhou Development District, has co-developed the Western Beauty Valley, aiming to foster the "beauty economy" industrial ecosystem. This project will involve a cluster of beauty industry activities, including research and development, production, packaging, sales, inspection, and experience.

Located in Banan District, the Chongqing International Biological Park attracted Chongqing Kelan Health Management Group, a major domestic beauty industry enterprise, to jointly establish a cosmetics industrialization base as early as 2019. 

This base now features a research and development center, sterile production workshops, and an intelligent warehousing center. It is set to become an industry-leading one-stop smart production base, with a daily output of 300,000 sets of beauty and related products.

Additionally, Nanchuan District has previously issued a beauty industry development plan, which aims to leverage the unique plant and traditional Chinese medicine resources of Jinfo Mountain. The plan aims to foster the deep integration of Chinese medicine and the beauty industry, and to establish a green manufacturing base for beauty products crafted from local plant resources, as well as a supply chain for raw materials. The district aims to become a key national hub for beauty products crafted from distinctive plant resources and to establish a renowned "plant beauty town" by 2035.

Currently, Chongqing is not only focusing on the production side of the beauty industry but also driving sales in the market.

For example, districts like Yuzhong and Jiangbei are making significant efforts to promote "aesthetic consumption." These areas regularly host events such as the Fashion Beauty Festival and the International Beauty Festival. These themed events feature a range of activities, including beauty brand debuts, product launches, makeup showcases, fashion flash mobs, and offline interactive events, all of which help to energize the beauty consumption market.

To achieve high-quality development of the beauty industry, two key factors are essential: an ample supply of raw materials for cosmetics and an accumulation of research and development technology.

"Chongqing has a solid foundation in both of these areas," said a representative from the city's Commission of Economy and Information Technology.

In terms of raw materials, as one of China's key regions for traditional Chinese medicine production, Chongqing boasts "natural herbal repositories" such as the Wuling and Daba Mountains. It is home to 62 varieties of authentic medicinal herbs, making it a "natural resource bank" for the beauty industry.

Regarding R&D technology, Chongqing has nurtured leading pharmaceutical companies, such as Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products and Chongqing Huapont Pharmaceutical, which possess strong industry conversion capabilities among the best in China. Additionally, the city is home to top universities like Chongqing University and Southwest University, and its patent grants in the biomedical field rank first in Western China, the representative added.

At the same time, Chongqing is providing guidance for the development of the beauty industry.

In the action plan to cultivate Chongqing's future industry, the city has identified the biomanufacturing industry, which includes beauty products, as one of the high-growth sectors for future development.

Furthermore, in the "Chongqing Consumer Goods Industry 'Bestselling Products' Cultivation List," the city emphasizes fostering emerging consumer goods in the beauty and health sector, using beauty and health as a "focus" to drive the growth of new beauty products.

Focusing on the concepts of "beauty" and "health," Chongqing is building a full industrial chain for the beauty industry, which includes biomedicine, core raw material R&D for cosmetics, testing and inspection, and health services.

The Chongqing Beauty and Health Industry Ecological Development Alliance is led by the Chongqing Industrial and Information Technology Development Center. The center's Director Song Shixiong said that the alliance will focus on a "laboratory-patent-product" full-chain transformation mechanism. Leveraging the research strengths of local universities and institutions such as Southwest University, Chongqing University, the Chongqing Institute for Food and Drug Control, and Chongqing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, the alliance will collaborate with industry-leading companies to focus on new raw material R&D, green production processes, and intelligent technologies to co-build a technology R&D platform.

"By overcoming key industry challenges through technological breakthroughs, driving product research and innovation, and converting scientific and technological achievements into practical applications, the main task of the alliance is to establish pilot production lines and industrialization bases, enhancing the conversion rate of R&D results for beauty products," said Song.

"The alliance will also unite industry resources, continuously expanding the 'circle of friends' of the beauty industry both inside and outside the city. It will push more new research and technologies out of the laboratory to meet market demands for beauty products and services," Song added.

Song further explained that the alliance will leverage the comparative advantages of its members in scientific research, testing, and technical processes, tapping into local agricultural product resources and technological elements. This will create a "shared innovation + collaborative R&D + pilot testing + large-scale production + multi-channel cooperation" model for the beauty and health industry, cultivating a full industry chain ecosystem that encompasses R&D, production, service, and consumption. The goal is to develop distinctive beauty and health products that are uniquely recognizable as Chongqing’s, driving "aesthetic consumption" and supporting the development of local distinctive industries.

(Chongqing Daily contributed to the Chinese version of this report.)