Trend tracker: Functional yogurt in Japan, China's adult probiotic sector, nutricosmetics in Malaysia
Meiji’s market insights: Functional yogurt sales continue to slide, but sports nutrition on a surge
Meiji’s sales of functional yogurt in Japan have been declining due to the levelling of demand and an intensifying market competition, but sports nutrition is on the up, the firm has revealed.
Net sales of functional yogurt dropped 12 per cent to JPY$24.2bn (US$209m) as compared to Q3 FY2020.
The reduction in functional yogurt sales has also dragged down the company’s overall sales and operating profit of its yogurt and cheese business by 7.9 per cent and 26.7 per cent in Q1-Q3 FY2021 as compared to the same period in FY2020.
Growing up: Why China’s ‘underdeveloped’ adult probiotic segment will continue to expand – Culturelle
China’s probiotic market has been traditionally driven by products targeted at infants and kids, but global probiotic brand Culturelle believes that the adult market is set for “very strong growth momentum”.
The brand under DSM’s consumer health company i-Health entered the China market with products for infants and kids in 2014.
Since then, it has noticed that the adult probiotic market has been growing by leaps and bounds, especially with the rise of snackification of probiotics.
‘Daigou 2.0’: China’s infant formula demand exceeding pre-pandemic levels – Bubs
China’s corporate daigou channel is witnessing high growth momentum and demand for infant formulas is exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels, according to Australian infant formula maker Bubs.
The ASX-listed company said in its FY2022 Q2 report that gross revenue from its corporate daigou channel was up 196 per cent as compared to the same period last year.
As compared to the previous quarter, gross revenue from corporate daigou was also up 17 per cent.
Korean chart toppers: Korea Ginseng Corp retains number one sales spot, Yakult drops out of top five
Korea Ginseng Corp (KGC) continues to top the country’s health functional foods sales chart, while Korea Yakult has been pushed out of the top five, according to new data.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) recently published the Food and Drug Statistical Yearbook for 2021, which detailed the country’s health functional foods and general foods sales in year 2020.
Sales of health functional foods within the country had hit KRW$3.1 trillion (US$2.6bn) in 2020. The country also exported KRW$226bn (US$188m) worth of health functional foods.
Korea and Japan inspiration: Malaysia’s Flavettes formulates popular beauty-from-within ingredients into effervescent tablets
Flavettes, a brand by Malaysia-headquartered Duopharma Biotech, is moving a step further into the health and beauty segment by incorporating well-known beauty ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, ceramide, and collagen peptide into effervescent tablets.
The company officially launched two new effervescent tablet products known as Flavettes Effervescent Glamz and Flavettes Effervescent H-DRATE in December.
The former contains L-glutathione, collagen peptide, vitamin C to improve skin suppleness, while the latter contains hyaluronic acid, rice-derived ceramide, and vitamin C for skin hydration.
