Nutraceutical is a combination of the words ‘nutrition’ and ‘pharmaceutical’. It is a food or food product that reportedly provides health and medical benefits. Globally, nutraceuticals are gaining prominence and becoming a part of the average consumer’s daily diet. The key reasons for this have been the increased incidence of lifestyle diseases the world over, increase in life expectancy and inadequate nutrition due to the current lifestyle choices people make today. In fact, in developing nations, mortality due to nutrition related factors is nearly 40 percent, underscoring the need for nutraceutical products, to balance the nutritional intake of the individual.
While the Indian industry is currently nascent, it has great potential and is expected to grow significantly in future. This makes it one of the key markets for entry for nutraceutical product and ingredient manufacturers.
The Indian nutraceutical market valued at $ 1,480 million in 2011 is estimated to grow to $ 2,731 million by 2016. According to the recent analysts’ reports, functional foods will be the quickest growing category followed by dietary supplements until 2015. Dietary supplements specifically herbal and dietetic supplements will form the greatest opportunity areas for nutraceutical manufacturers.
Increasing shift towards preventive therapies and increasing disposable income has led to the growth in nutraceutical market in India. Several pharmaceutical companies are entering this space, considering that nutraceutical products can be supplementary for their therapeutic products. Probiotics is the most emerging nascent nutraceutical product but with higher acceptance from the consumers. Nutraceutical market is driven primarily by the pharmaceutical sector in the form of vitamin and mineral supplements.
As per the recent study, the global nutraceutical market was estimated to be $ 149.5 billion in 2011 with US, Europe and Japan being the leading markets, accounting for nearly 93 per cent of the global nutraceutical demand. As these markets are nearing maturity, nutraceutical manufacturers are looking at developing countries such as India and China as key growth regions.
Other factors that could support the growth of nutraceuticals in India are increasing obesity in the population and rising instances of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The government is also chipping in by funding vitamin fortification initiatives due to increasing food security concerns in India and need for additional nutrition.
