Contact lens sales rise in Asia

The sales of contact lenses across five key Asian markets increased by over 3% in the first eight months of the year when directly compared to 2015, according to market research company GfK.

The rise takes the combined income of contact lens sales in China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia to more than $622m(USD).

Among the five countries tracked in the report, Korea had the largest contact lens market, accounting for 45% of the total market’s value. It was also key to the year-on-year growth of the market, with an approximate 7% increase in sales revenue.

Malaysia and China were the other largest growth contributors, accounting for 4% and 3% of the increased sales respectively.

Reflecting on the statistics, regional manager for optics at GfK, Guan Kai Soh, explained: “This region’s contact lens market has remained stable, maintaining its healthy single-digit growth rate in recent years. One of the main reasons can be attributed to the recent developments in the sector, especially in the specialty segments of multifocal and toric lenses and growing consumer acceptance, which has helped to stimulate overall performance of the market.”

While the two current largest contact lens categories, spherical and beauty, maintained stable to moderate growth, the smaller multifocal and toric contact lens segments have experienced a spike in demand in the past year.

The overall sales of multifocal contact lenses “rose significantly” said GfK, reporting a growth of 22%. The toric sector rose by 9%.

GfK commented that consumers’ heightened awareness towards improving eye health has also “helped the rising popularity of disposable contact lenses,” revealing that sales of daily, weekly and monthly contact lenses increased by more than 5%.