Complementary Medicines Australia’s recently released Industry Audit & Trends 2020: Healthy Growth report valued the nation’s complementary medicines (health supplements and vitamins) sector at AU$5.6 billion in 2019 – a year-on-year increase of $5.2 billion.
Over the same period, exports of complementary medicines from Australia grew by 15 per cent to $1.1 billion.
Vitamin and dietary supplements, the largest market segment, was valued at $3.1 billion, up 55 per cent over the five years to 2019; sports nutrition products came in second at $1.31 billion; herbal/traditional products totalled $760m; and weight loss products $430m. The sector has 92 Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA)-licensed manufacturing sites Australia-wide and its profit margin stands at around 10.8 per cent.
Nearly half of the Australian supplements bought domestically are sold from pharmacies, but e-commerce channels are claiming an increasing share of the market, here and especially across Asia.
The burgeoning China market
Between 2014 and 2019, Australia was China’s number one import market for nutrition and health food products, with an import volume of $1.12 billion. Currently, Australia’s year-on-year growth of imports of these product categories into China is nine per cent.
China’s market for supplements and health food products is a vast and growing market potentially worth US$68 billion, representing a huge opportunity for Australian suppliers, states the CMA report. Our current level of exports to China could, potentially, double in size over the next three years, the report claims.
And the trend is likely to continue, with the COVID-19 pandemic only boosting demand for health-promoting goods and Australia generally regarded by consumers as a trusted source.
Read the report highlights here.
Source: Industry Audit & Trends 2020: Healthy Growth I Complementary Medicines Australia (CMA)