Korean retailers are transforming into leading trading firms, reaping success by taking the products of smaller companies and private brands abroad, industry statistics showed Monday.

E-Mart began its exports in 2013 through an agreement with Hong Kong's Watson Group to supply 128 processed foods of its own label. The first year of exports amounted to $330,000. In the first quarter of this year alone, E-Mart's exports of private brand goods totaled $3.71 million, more than double the yearly total of last year, company officials said.

It struck a deal to sell its own developed red ginseng products through the home shopping services of MBC America, a cable channel operating in the United States in cities with heavy Korean-American populations, and it also reached an agreement with Chinese IT firm NetEase to provide 20 billion won ($17.07 million) worth of products.

Lotte Mart has been concentrating on exporting local agricultural goods overseas, taking advantage of its 169 branches in foreign countries, including 116 in China.

Home shopping channels have been even more successful.

CJ O Shopping said its overseas sales topped 2 trillion won for the first time last year, hitting 2.73 trillion won. It marks an exponential growth from less than 20 billion won in 2004, when the company made its first overseas strides into Shanghai. According to company officials, approximately 40 percent of its entire sales comes from markets outside of the country.

Worth noting is that about 10 percent of the overseas sales are from selling products made by Korean companies, and among that 10 percent, 77 percent is from the sales of goods made by small and mid-sized firms.

"We work together with local manufacturers to develop new products in an array of categories," a CJ O Shopping official said. "Exports through cooperation between retailers and small companies are a true example of co-existence."

For GS Home Shopping, its total overseas sales reached 1 trillion won last year, with 30 percent of them coming from Korean products. For about a third of this 30 percent, GS Home Shopping not only broadcast the product but directly handled exports proceedings.

The partnerships between retailers and manufacturers, especially in those with home shopping channels, have sometimes brought unexpected success.

CJ IMC, a subsidiary of CJ O Shopping that handles worldwide exports, takes credit for recommending a local small company to export clothes drying racks to India back in 2011. CJ IMC pushed the idea, citing the monthslong monsoon rains in India, where laundry machines were not yet a common household appliance, leaving most homes to hand-wash and dry clothes on lines.

Home Power, the company that was given the tip, was close to stopping manufacturing of the drying rack at the time. It sold 80,000 racks in India in 2011 and later expanded exports to Vietnam, Thailand, Turkey and the Philippines last year to chalk up 7 billion won in sales.

PN Poong Nyun was advised to sell smaller frying pans in India to fit the size of the country's staple food chapati. The pans were made in orange, a color favored by housewives in India. The company hit 8 billion won in sales from the frying pans in the country between May 2013 and the end of 2015.

GS Home Shopping proposed a partnership to Y&H, the maker of home health equipment brand Lexpa, which was searching for a way to export its products. GS Home Shopping suggested that they target Thailand, saying people in countries with hot climates are forced to exercise at home. After redesigning its exercise bike, Y&H was able to sell 15,000 of them in Thailand for a total of 3 billion won. The company took in 25 billion won in sales last year, about half of them from exports.

"Our corporate credibility has improved," said Koo Gyeong-shik, head of Y&H. "We have virtuous cycles going where product investment continues under a stable supply of funds." (Yonhap)