Christophe Masson, Managing Director of the Cosmetic Valley competitiveness cluster, world leader in exports, discusses the importance of this market for companies belonging to the Chartres cluster.
Cosmetics are growing
“It’s sad what’s happening in Ukraine. Cosmetic Valley is a sector that exports products made in France to the whole world. French exports to Russia represent 1.9% of total cosmetic perfumery exports, with €301 million. They were already down 12% during the 2019-2021 period. In 2021, Russia represents only 1.9% of French cosmetic perfumery exports. Europe remains the leading market for French exports with 7.3 billion euros of exports, or 45% of French exports. It is the leading market in terms of value for French products. Ukraine is one of the new European markets with great potential. French exports to Ukraine amount to 81 million euros, up even during the Covid, with +7.4% over the period 2019-2021. That said, it only represents 0.5% of French exports in 2021,” says Christophe Masson.
The cosmetics-perfumes sector saw its activity grow by 14% in 2021
The leader of Cosmetic Valley notes that Poland represented more export outlets than Russia. France exported €308 million there in 2021, +2.45% between 2019 and 2021 in average annual growth rate.
Medicines exported
Fabien Riolet, CEO of Polepharma, for his part, heads the largest European pharmaceutical cluster, headquartered in Chartres: “This invasion is worrying news for peace in Europe. Many French drug companies have subsidiaries in Russia and some of them export heavily there. This is the case, among others, of Smecta® from Ipsen in Dreux or drugs to fight diabetes from Novo Nordisk in Chartres. These two sites export to around a hundred countries around the world, including Russia and Ukraine. There are also Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from Delpharm in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre, etc. »
The Polepharma Eurelian cluster merges with the South West Pharmaceutical Industries Group
On the other hand, Fabien Riolet thinks that the size of these markets would not represent too large a share in the activity of the Eurelian laboratories.
The two decision-makers think that in the short term, the production of local laboratories will not be affected by this war launched this Thursday morning by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin against Ukraine. Few negative and positive consequences on the operation of companies in both sectors. The medium-term consequences have not yet been assessed.
Ahmed Taghza
Follow @AhmedTaghza
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