The market size for sanitary products, including production and imports, reached 3.1492 trillion won last year, up 9.7% from 2.8716 trillion won a year earlier.
Sanitary products include items that come into direct or indirect contact with the human body, such as cleaning agents, sanitary towels, oral care products, disposable cups and toilet paper.
According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, domestic production of sanitary products totaled 2.532 trillion won last year. Toilet paper ranked first at 1.0111 trillion won, or 39.9%, followed by disposable cups at 333.8 billion won, or 13.2%; disposable diapers at 310.1 billion won, or 12.2%; disposable towels at 291.3 billion won, or 11.5%; and cleaning agents at 240.7 billion won, or 9.5%. These five items accounted for about 86% of total production. Imports totaled 617.2 billion won, led by disposable diapers at 325.7 billion won, or 52.8%; oral care products at 68 billion won, or 11.0%; cleaning agents at 46.8 billion won, or 7.6%; disposable chopsticks at 43.2 billion won, or 7.0%; and disposable cups at 28.9 billion won, or 4.7%. These five items made up about 83% of total imports.
The MFDS said the market expanded because oral care products and tattoo dyes were newly added to the category, production of existing items increased, supply of adult diapers continued to rise, and production of wet wipes used at restaurants and other food service establishments, including dry tissues for wet wipes, also grew. Domestic production of the newly added oral care products, including toothbrushes, dental floss and tongue scrapers, reached 80 billion won, while tattoo dyes recorded 900 million won. In addition, supply of adult diapers, including sanitary pads, rose about 6% from 57,806 tons a year earlier to 61,418 tons last year. Given the growing population aged 65 and older, the upward trend is expected to continue. Supply of adult diapers has exceeded that of children’s diapers since 2024. Production of wet wipes used at restaurants and elsewhere also totaled 67.5 billion won, up about 19% from 56.5 billion won a year earlier. That contrasts with sanitary towels, which are disinfected and reused and saw production fall about 12% from a year earlier. The ministry said this reflects a growing preference for convenient disposable wet wipes.
Kim Sohyung, reporter compact@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
