As Covid charges skyrocket nationwide, nutraceuticals or dietary products containing life-enhancing supplements are seeing a tremendous rise in demand and some companies expect four-fold growth this financial year.
“The total demand for healthy nutraceutical products, supplements, and health protection from the four major municipalities has seen dramatic growth,” said Sanjaya Mariwala, president of the Association of Herbal and Nutraceuticals Manufacturers of India.
Mariwala, who is also the executive chairman of OmniActive Health Technologies, said the need was even greater in West Bengal and the North East. The 2nd and 3rd cities in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat also saw an increase in the situation during the epidemic.
Since April 2020, the industry has seen an increase in demand for products including those related to digestive health, sleep and stress, industry officials said.
Mariwala said, “Without a doubt, since April 2020, we have seen an increase in the demand for nutraceutical products, supplements and good health protection. By May 2020, after overcoming all procurement challenges, our business had returned to normal, and in July and August, doubled since March”.
OmniActive Health Technologies expects its business to grow four times this amount. Mariwala said that the demand is strong, and the second wave of Covid brings them higher prices for defensive products.
Nutraceutical products can be considered as non-specific therapies used to promote general well-being, control symptoms and prevent adverse processes. India is among the largest suppliers in the world market for medicinal plants and herbal extracts such as curcumin from turmeric, peppers, piperine from black pepper or mucuna and ashwagandha. India is one of the world’s three largest producers.
Covid-19 has led to a sharp rise in preventive health care.
“With increasing awareness and to some extent due to fear of contracting the virus, people are now looking at disease prevention as their basic health support. More and more people are trying to find nutritional supplements to address the shortage of healthy food”, said Mariwala.
He clarified by saying that he would like to emphasize the point that despite the huge increase in demand in the defense product market, no supplement will be able to curb the spread of coronavirus.
It is very important to see that there are far more serious and health challenges that can be prevented in addition, Mariwala said that they are already seeing a lot of promises in the sleep category right now. The same is applies with other things like stress, anxiety and mental health.
India’s nutraceutical industry was valued at $ 5 billion at the end of December 2019, with the domestic market costing $ 3 billion and exports at $ 2 billion.
