InterCHARM.kiev.ua - about perfumery and cosmetics market from professionals

There is no per se organic cosmetics market in Ukraine. Correspondingly there is no such boom regarding organic cosmetics as it is in the whole world now. At the same time there are a lot of brands in Ukraine, which could be labelled as organic ones: GUAM, Annemarie Borlind, Santaverde, Weleda, Avalon Organics, Russian organic cosmetics Natura Siberica and others. But the volume of organic cosmetics sales according to the market players’ evaluation totaled 10 million EUR in 2008 that made up only 0,6% of the perfumery and cosmetics market of Ukraine.

As experts say such state of things is caused by just incipient culture of consumption in Ukraine. Thus only 3-5% of Ukrainians choose organic cosmetics. According to the data provided by the market experts, financial crisis affected the rates of organic cosmetics realization. In January-February 2009 sales decreased by 80% as against the similar period of 2008, whereas in November-December 2009 decrease made up 40-50%  in comparison with the same period in 2008.

According to the research conducted among the visitors of the shops of organic products Natur Boutique in Kyiv, 60% of Ukrainian customers are not ready to pay for organic products the price 40% higher than the price for ordinary products. Only 5% of customers are ready to pay for organic cosmetics the price 60% higher than for ordinary products.

Concerning the structure of sales channels it looks in the following way: through pharmacies and pharmmarkets chains there are realized more than 75% of organic products, besides about 15% are realized through specialized ecoshops (shops that offer various groups of ecological goods), and about 5% is the share of online sales. A part of organic cosmetics included into professional lines of products is realized through beauty salons, their share varies in the range of 4-5% , but this channel is considered to be rather perspective.

For about 5 years in Ukraine there have been operating monobrand shops of natural cosmetics L'OCCITANE and L’Erbolario the product range of which includes organic cosmetics as well.

It should be noted that in the second half-year of 2009 the first specialized chain of organic cosmetics Glossary appeared in Ukraine. To date this chain numbers 5 multibrand shops.

Speaking about manufacture of organic cosmetics or raw materials for these products it is necessary to notice that there is no normative and legal base to regulate this conception in Ukraine. Though there are establishments certified according to international standards, but at national level in Ukraine there are no requirements of cultivation, production, certification and labeling of organic products.  At the moment there is just one bill About Organic Production, which in case of its approval will assist Ukrainian manufacturers to develop in dynamic way and to cut off those competitors who can not prove organic origin of their products legislatively.

Ukrainian customers’ knowledge of organic cosmetics is rather low and that is why distributors of these products invest money in their popularization.

All in all it is necessary to say that there is no strong competition on the Ukrainian market of organic cosmetics, the culture and preferences of Ukrainians in this category of products are in the process of formation as yet.