China Nutrition and Health Food Blue Book: Market size to exceed 800 billion yuan in 2027

According to the Blue Book of China's Nutraceutical Industry, jointly released by CIC Consulting and Beijing Damei Youhua New Media Platform, one of the latest trends in the consumption of nutritious and healthy foods is the younger age of the population. The younger population maintains a high growth rate and is gradually becoming the backbone of the consumption of nutritious and healthy foods, which is corroborated by the popularity of Baduanjin among the younger population: for the cause of health, more and more young people, like the silver-haired population, cannot do without health preservation exercises and health preservation foods.

These trends have opened up huge opportunities for China's nutrition and health food industry. According to the Blue Book of China's Nutrition and Health Food Industry, the industry is expected to reach 588.5 billion yuan by 2022 and exceed 800 billion yuan by 2027.

Changes in the consumption habits of the post-60s new elderly group

Of course, the biggest growth driver in the nutrition and health food industry is still China's accelerating population aging trend.

In 2021, the population of people over 60 in China will be 260 million, and in 2022 it will be 280 million. The figure for 2023, which was announced not long ago, is 290 million, an astonishing growth rate. The trend of an ageing population will continue to accelerate in the next few years. “The post-1962 baby boom generation is now entering retirement,” Bian Changyong, founder of the Beijing Dama Youhua new media platform, told reporters.

Against this background, the General Office of the State Council recently issued the Opinions on Developing the Silver Hair Economy and Enhancing the Well-being of the Elderly, the first policy document in China to be named the “Silver Hair Economy”. The Blue Book of China's Nutrition and Health Food Industry believes that this guiding document on the silver hair economy will play a significant role in developing China's nutrition and health food industry. “Health needs are the number one rigid demand of the silver hair population, and the health industry will become one of the largest market segments of the silver hair economy,” Zhang Chenkai, executive director of CIC Consulting, told reporters.

A clear trend towards rejuvenation

The Blue Book of China's Nutrition and Health Food Industry believes that nutrition and health food can be divided into health food and functional food. Health food mainly supplements dietary nutrition for the human body and cannot be used to treat diseases. It is subject to stricter supervision, while functional food and beverages are usually managed as ordinary food, with lower barriers to entry and more diverse product forms.

Driven by macro policies and consumer demand, a large number of emerging brands have entered the functional food market, winning the favor of investors and consumers. According to statistics from the Blue Book of China's Nutrition and Health Food Industry, from November 2022 to October 2023, four of the top five nutrition and health food products sold on Tmall will be functional foods, with emerging brands prominently featured.

“Ali Health and JD Health are the two leading domestic e-commerce platforms for healthcare products. Their average annual compound growth rates for 2017-2022 are both over 50%. By 2022, the revenue of these two platforms will have reached 26.8 billion and 46.7 billion yuan respectively, which reflects the growing willingness of Chinese residents to spend online on health-related products,” Zhang Chenkai, executive director of CIC Consulting, told reporters.