Southeast Asia
Manufacturing in Korea for the Thai Market
Thailand notifies rather than approves, and the filing itself is rarely what catches brands out. The order of operations is. What the Thai FDA issues on notification is carried on the pack, so the label cannot be finished before the filing is — and plans built the other way round lose a season to a reprint.
The framework
- Regulator
- Food and Drug Administration (Thai FDA), Ministry of Public Health
- Governing law
- Thailand’s Cosmetic Act, applying the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive
- Before you can sell
- Notification to the Thai FDA before manufacture, import or sale.
- Must be established locally
- A Thai entity holding the notification and importing the product.
- Sunscreen is
- A cosmetic, subject to the ASEAN permitted UV filter list.
From formula to first shipment.
- 01
Check the formula against the ASEAN annexes
Thailand applies the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive lists — prohibited, restricted, colourants, preservatives and permitted UV filters. They follow the EU structure and agree with it on most entries, and the entries where they do not are the ones that decide whether a Korean formula travels. Check the ASEAN position directly rather than inferring it from the EU one.
- 02
Appoint the Thai notification holder
The notification is filed and held by an entity in Thailand, in practice your importer or distributor. A Korean manufacturer cannot hold it, and because the holder is the party the authority deals with, changing partner is not a purely commercial decision.
- 03
Compile the Product Information File
The ASEAN Product Information File is held for the product and produced on request. The formulation, manufacturing and quality sections come from the manufacturer, which is why the file is assembled through development rather than at filing.
- 04
File the notification with the Thai FDA
Filing covers the product identity, the formulation frame and the intended presentation, and the authority issues its particulars against it. Notifications run for a fixed term and are renewed rather than lasting indefinitely.
- 05
Prepare Thai-language labelling
Thai on pack, carrying the notification particulars alongside product identity, the ingredient declaration, net content, batch and durability information, country of origin, the importer’s details, usage and warnings.
- 06
Settle the claim set before the advertising spend
Claims are read against the ASEAN claim guidelines, and Thailand applies its own control over how cosmetics are advertised on top of that. Therapeutic and exaggerated claims are refused, and the whitening vocabulary that reads as ordinary in Korea is the most common place a Thai campaign has to be rewritten.
What catches brands out here.
Artwork follows the filing, not the other way round
Because what the authority issues on notification is printed on the pack, the label cannot be finalised until the notification exists. This is a sequencing constraint rather than a difficulty, and it is the single most avoidable reason a Thai launch slips: the print run gets planned against the shipping date instead of against the filing.
Whitening is the biggest category and the closest to the line
Brightening and whitening positioning carries further in Thailand than almost anywhere, which is exactly why it is watched. The distance between a cosmetic claim and a medicinal one is short here, and the category also attracts adulterated product, so a legitimate brand inherits suspicion it did not earn. Precise, substantiated language does more commercial work in Thailand than superlatives do.
Thai script is a layout problem, not a translation problem
Thai sets taller than Latin text and stacks marks above and below the line, so a pack designed around English copy usually has to be re-laid out rather than re-typeset. Panels that were comfortable in English overflow. Put a real Thai text block in front of the packaging designer before the die-line is fixed.
Thailand makes cosmetics too
Thailand is one of ASEAN’s larger contract manufacturing bases, so an imported Korean product is not competing against absence. It competes on formulation credibility and category authority rather than on price or on being foreign, and that changes both the positioning and the price ladder.
We document. Your local entity registers.
- Full quantitative formula and specification sheets
- Certificates of analysis by batch
- Stability data against tropical distribution conditions
- Manufacturing method and site documentation for the Product Information File
- Free sale and origin documentation for the notification dossier
- Artwork files laid out with room for Thai-language text
- The Thai notification holder and importer
- Notification filing and renewal
- The Product Information File held in Thailand
- Thai-language label copy and final artwork approval
- Claim and advertising review before campaign spend
Manufacturing through contracted Korean partners, matched to your product — every order made in Korea. Certifications depend on the selected manufacturing partner and project requirements.
Why this market
Thailand has one of the most engaged K-beauty audiences in the region, and discovery runs through social and livestream commerce rather than through the retail shelf — which favours brands prepared to support sellers with content, not only with stock.
Sun care, oil control and acne-adjacent categories perform year-round in the climate, and a clinic-influenced consumer culture means ingredient-led positioning is understood rather than having to be explained first.
Thai retail and Thai social content travel across mainland Southeast Asia, so a Thai launch does commercial work beyond Thailand. The regulatory work does not travel with it — every neighbouring market is its own filing.
Selling in Thailand
Can we hold the Thai notification ourselves?
The notification is filed and held by an entity in Thailand, in practice your importer or distributor. Because the holder is the party the authority deals with, switching partners is not purely a commercial decision — settle at the outset what becomes of the notification if you part ways, and write that into the distribution agreement.
Does the label have to be in Thai?
Yes — and it also carries what the Thai FDA issues on notification. That second part is the one that catches people: it means the artwork cannot be finalised before the filing is done. Plan the print run against the notification date rather than against the shipping date.
Are the ASEAN rules the same in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia?
The ingredient annexes are shared, so a formula cleared for one is usually clear for the others. The filings are not shared. Each of the four has its own notification, its own local holder and its own label requirements, so the formulation work is done once and the market entry four times.
Can we sell a Korean sunscreen in Thailand?
Sunscreen is a cosmetic in Thailand and follows the ordinary notification route, with UV filters drawn from the ASEAN permitted list. Check the filter system first — the ASEAN list is not the EU list and it is not Taiwan’s list either, and the filter system is what forces a reformulation when one is needed.
Sources
- Food and Drug Administration, Thailand — Ministry of Public Health, Thailand
- ASEAN Cosmetic Directive and harmonised cosmetic regulatory scheme — Association of Southeast Asian Nations
- Cosmetic Regulatory Framework in Korea — Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Republic of Korea
Requirements differ by market and by product, and they keep changing. Cross-check the current position as your project moves, and confirm it with a qualified regulatory consultant in Thailand before committing to a formula or a launch date. We review these pages against the sources above as the rules move.
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Start Your Project →This page is general information for manufacturing planning. It is not legal or regulatory advice, it has no legal effect, and no rights can be derived from it. Requirements change by market and over time — before acting on anything here, confirm the current position with the authority concerned or with qualified counsel.