The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) said on the 25th that it held the 2026 LA K-Premium Consumer Goods Expo, or KOREA EXPO LA 2026, with Exforum Co. over two days starting on the 22nd local time at the Magic Box LA exhibition venue.
The K-Premium Consumer Goods Expo is a business-to-consumer exhibition and trade meeting that KITA stages each year in major overseas cities including Tokyo, Paris and Jakarta. The platform connects Korean consumer goods companies directly with local buyers to turn meetings into actual export deals. This year's event was held in Los Angeles for the first time, targeting a North American market where demand is growing, with K-beauty exports to the U.S. up more than 40% in the first nine months of this year from a year earlier.
A total of 85 Korean consumer goods companies seeking to enter the North American market took part across 120 booths, spanning cosmetics, fashion, food and household goods.
KITA invited buyers with distribution networks across North America, including the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and arranged one-on-one business matching. About 120 local distributors — among them H Mart, the leading Korean-American grocery chain in the U.S., Sally Beauty Holdings, which operates more than 4,000 beauty stores worldwide, and Mexican retail chain Del Sol — held more than 400 export consultations with the participating companies.
The event also featured B2C programs for general consumers. About 16,000 local visitors tried skincare, color cosmetics and anti-aging products at a K-beauty makeup show and sampled K-food, including snacks, processed foods and street food, through on-site cooking demonstrations by chefs. Content for fans of Korean culture included a fan meeting with singer Ailee, a raffle for K-pop idol albums and a cover dance contest.
"As the Korean wave has become part of consumers' lifestyles around the world, global demand is rising quickly across Korean consumer goods as a whole — not only food and cosmetics but also fashion and home living," said Jang Suk-min, executive director at KITA. "Using the LA event as a springboard, we will expand export marketing support that draws on the Korean wave to Latin America and actively back the global expansion of Korean consumer goods and tangible results for companies."