Aging population, growing health consciousness, increasing shift towards preventive therapies and rising disposable incomes, more usage of internet and social media in upper middle class are among many other factors driving the growth of Indian nutraceuticals and a trend towards self-medication using functional foods and nutraceuticals.
We have ushered in 2015 with hopes of resolving many issues related to nutra sector and the memories of 2014 which saw Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led NDA government coming to the power with a clear majority. The industry has a high expectations from the new government as regards to good governance and reforms leading to higher investments and faster industry growth. Some of the expectations include clear policy on foreign direct investment, retail, direct marketing, product approvals for foods, infrastructure development and malnutrition etc.
The new government started rolling out projects and creating an industry friendly environment, which it feels will support theindustry along with common man in the coming months. ‘Make in India’ programme was started to speed up the area of manufacturing. Besides, the government has initiated E-revolution project to abolish Corruption. These initiatives will bring in transparency into the system and speed up the approval processes. In addition to these achievements, the government has to do a lot to take the Indian industry to the next level and its products are acceptable to all in the global market.
Given the bottlenecks choking the nutrition and nutraceuticals sector, ranging from regulatory issues to stiff competition from multi-national companies, the industry posted a remarkable growth in the year 2014. This growth is mainly driven by the business models and different strategies adopted by the progressive companies.
Sharing their views, the industry captains maintained that they foresee a double digit growth for the industry in 2015, which can go up if government implements food safety laws, finalize regulations on nutrauceticals, nutritional, functional foods, novel foods, product approval system, single window system, harmonization of national standards with Codex and offers tax reliefs, grants and incentives along with setting up proper infrastructure.
Dr R K Sanghavi, Consultant– Healthcare NeuroMarketing & Regulatory and Specialist– Nutraceuticals & Health Supplements & Functional Foods said, “urgent notifying and gazetting the new regulations for ‘Nutraceuticals, Functional Foods, Dietetic Foods, Nutritionals and Specialty Foods and Novel Foods’ will kick-start the 2015 on a positive note.”
At Arjuna Natural Extracts, the evolving customer prudence is a welcoming affair. P J Kunjachan, Chairman and Managing Director, Arjuna Natural Extracts said, “This will certainly boost organizations like us to strengthen its research and development initiatives for delivering products backed by clinical trials, scientific studies and published literatures.”
Excited about the future of ingredients market, George Kuriakose, VP – Marketing, Bio-gen Extracts said, “We are investing in R&D and clinical studies to come out with well researched and documented products to cater to the Pharma, Food and beverages and Diary companies. We are targeting a growth rate that is higher than the industry rate of 16%.”
Envisaging huge opportunities in India and in the global markets, VG Nair, CEO, Sami Labs said “We will continue to draw from our R&D strength and will launch innovative nutraceutical and cosmeceutical products in the coming years. He further said that SAMI Direct, the multi-level marketing arm of Sami Labs, which for the first time introduced nutraceutical and cosmeceutical products with patented formulations in India and globally, maintaining its tradition for the past several years is poised to achieve a steady growth rate of 20% year-on-year.
Vikram Grover, Vice President & Head Marketing – India & South Asia, Tata Global Beverages pointed out that keeping the larger tea drinking demography in mind, Tata Tea geared up to spread the wellness quotient and make it accessible across the country. This led to Tata Tea’s entry into the green tea category with Tata Tea Acti Green Tea across India. Tata Tea Acti Green is tailored with exciting Indian flavours and less bitter blends, creating the natural beverage suitable for a larger society.
Similarly referring to the rising popularity of nutrition bars, Vijay Uttarwar, Founder & CEO, Naturell India said “We can predict that 2015 will be an exceptional year for this market. The consumer’s buying behaviour is seeing a shift from experimental impulsive buying to purposeful buying for the use and benefits of these bars.”
The food industry was under a lot of pressure during the beginning of 2014 from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the country’s apex food regulator. However the industry got some relief during 2014 as the authority extended deadline for obtaining licences and securing registration for food business operators (FBOs) in the country under the Food Safety and Standards Regulations (FSSR), 2011, till February 4, 2015. Again the industry is passing through similar tough time because of delays in getting product approvals from the authority, though the industry got favourable judgment from the Bomaby High Court, which was later challenged by the authority in Supreme Court.
Hope 2015 will provide a lot of platforms for industry and government agencies to work together to resolve issues so that consumers can relish new innovative, healthy and nutritional foods during the year.
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Tata Global Beverages, a leading player in the green tea segment in India with Tetley, recently launched Tata Tea Acti Green. We are confident that the company will further consolidate its grip on the market. Tetley is our strong commitment to spread wellness and benefits of green tea amongst the consumers, our promise to innovate and give consumers the best of flavours and products, our vision to grow and be the undisputed leaders in the category. |