Business Insights: Dietary Supplements still big business in US & EU
Posted by Edward Endicott on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 @ 09:55 AM
Despite economic pressures and regulatory changes, the dietary supplement industry is set for growth. With a compound annual growth rate of 3.8% expected over 2010–15, the US sector will outpace the EU and most other markets, reaching a value of almost $30bn by 2015, finds Business Insights.
A new report, "The Dietary Supplements Regulatory and Market Outlook" by the independent market analyst has revealed that, like the US market, the European market for dietary supplements is expected to experience growth, but at a slower rate of 3% to 2015, reaching $16.6bn.
Michael Randle, senior analyst at Business Insights, said: “The dietary supplements market, which includes vitamins and minerals, herbs and botanicals, and sports and speciality, has experienced a challenging few years due to changes to regulations and the economic downturn, which saw many consumers cutting back on nonessential purchases.”
Although both markets will experience overall growth over the next few years, the dynamics are very different. It is the sports and speciality segment that is the largest in terms of per capita sales in the US. In Europe, meanwhile, vitamins and minerals represent the biggest subsector, followed by herbs and botanicals and then sports and speciality.
The success of the US sports and speciality market is driven by its loyal customer base, but also its 
capacity and need to innovate. However, many factors still exist in the category that may play a role in how strong it remains, including significant concerns over product quality and exaggerated marketing claims, on which enforcement agencies strongly clamped down on in 2010. It is because of these recent issues that growth is expected to continue but at about a 2–3% drop over 2009 figures.
In contrast, the sports and speciality segment is the weakest of the dietary supplements markets in Europe at the moment. This subsector is still developing, and there remain only a handful of major companies dominating the sports nutrition market. It is the battle between the vitamins and minerals segment and the herbs and botanicals segment that is currently dominating the market in Europe.
Mr Randle added: “In 2011, vitamins and minerals will continue to drive the sales of supplements in Europe. This will be due, in part, to the change in legislation and the fairly widespread approval of claims on vitamins and minerals as a result of the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation. At the same time, the restrictions set to be enforced on the herbs and botanicals market by the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive in April will affect growth, further helping the vitamins and minerals market to take the lead.”
For more information on the "The Dietary Supplements Regulatory and Market Outlook" report, click here.