IPA Chief: Global probiotics supplement market estimated to hit US$8.2 billion

10-Nov-2022 - Last updated on 10-Nov-2022 at 14:34 GMT

Growth in the probiotic supplements market has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and interest in the beneficial microorganisms continues to gather pace, says the executive director of the International Probiotics Association.

Pre-pandemic, the probiotics supplements market in the US was growing at a almost flat-line 1%, but COVID-19 supercharged the category. Speaking with NutraIngredients at the recent SupplySide West in Las Vegas, IPA’s George Paraskevakos noted that data sources said that there would be a flattening out after the high-growth years of 2020 and 2021.

However, the flattening out has not happened and the probiotics supplements category continues to grow, he said.

“Maybe not at the pace that it did during the pandemic when everyone was home and doing all these searches online and self-educating on the category of probiotics.”

Paraskevakos cited recent Euromonitor data that showed that the global probiotics supplement market is estimated to close out 2022 at US$8.2 billion.

“That is interesting because only a few years back the market was forecasted to hit about $7.5 billion in 2025, so that’s a big difference,” he said.

“We also work with Lumina Intelligence [which focuses on ecommerce only] and the data there said the market is at $1.7 billion and growing at 15.5% globally. APAC is the biggest region and then you have the US, but what’s very interesting is the European region for ecomm sales, as reported by Lumina, took a huge leap,” he said.

“They [Europe] were the biggest growth market with over 20% growth… That tells me that, yeah, the environment in Europe hasn’t been taken care of yet for probiotics and regulations, but I think the consumers are thirsty for product and they do work, and if they cannot get them on retail shelves then they’re just ordering it on ecommerce platforms.”

Big announcement coming...

Paraskevakos also noted that November 14^th is a key date for the association as a course with Sonoran University in Tempe, AZ is unveiled. “It’s the first probiotics course in North America, maybe the world,” he said.

And then there was a tease about potential changes to the focus of the association. “We are looking at enlargening our scope and addressing new categories of biotics. That’s all I can see at this point,” said Paraskevakos.