In December 2022, Tawang Consulting will open the column of Tawang Food Great Health Consumption Research Institute (referred to as Tawang Food Research Institute). With the concept of "empowering the high-quality development of food industry brands", Tawang Food Research Institute will release it from time to time Food and health industry research and consumption research reports. Tawang Food Research Institute is committed to the collection and analysis of global data such as external data, consumer survey data, and internal enterprise data, and helps Chinese food companies improve business cognition and decision-making efficiency through digital and industrial data research.
The following content is the industry and consumption research conducted by Tawang Food Research Institute based on the field of "probiotics" from July to October 2022. For the complete report, click "Read the original text" at the bottom left of the article to enter the download page, and the official website will be updated simultaneously .
01、
Keep up with the big health process
Probiotics have entered the era of hundreds of billions
1. Origin of Species: Century-old probiotics, derived from fermented dairy products containing lactic acid bacteria
The English equivalent of probiotics is Probiotics, which is derived from Greek and means "beneficial to life (for life)". More than a hundred years ago, Russian scientist and Nobel laureate Elie Metchnikoff (Elie Metchnikoff) proposed in 1908 that eating fermented dairy products containing lactic acid bacteria can promote health and prolong life. He believes that these lactic acid bacteria enter the human intestinal tract along with food, inhibiting the action of harmful bacteria. This is the earliest recognized concept. After several refinements later, the definition was gradually formed:
Probiotics refer to a kind of active microorganisms that are beneficial to the host by colonizing in the human body and changing the composition of the flora in a certain part of the host. By regulating the immune function of the host mucosa and system or by regulating the balance of the flora in the intestinal tract, they can promote nutrient absorption and maintenance. Gut health, resulting in single microbes or well-defined blends with beneficial health effects.
2. Industry status: 100 billion market, continuous growth, B-side leading
Combined with relevant data, it can be seen that the probiotics industry as a whole is in a state of benign growth. The reasons are:
1) Under the national policy of Healthy China, the concept of national health has been widely disseminated;
2) Under the influence of the epidemic, the national demand for improving immunity is increasing;
3) Major brands have increased investment in the development and promotion of probiotic products, and the innovative application of probiotic raw materials has become more diversified, and the market penetration rate has further increased;
4) Consumers' awareness and recognition of probiotic products is constantly increasing.
Therefore, from 2016 to 2020, the supply and demand of China's probiotics industry showed a steady growth trend, and developed into a market size of nearly 100 billion. In view of the continuous and stable growth of the industry, we predict that by 2025, China's probiotics market will account for more than 25% of the global scale, becoming the world's largest probiotics market in one fell swoop.
Through in-depth research on the industry, it can be clearly seen that the sales of probiotics are still dominated by the B-end market, and major companies are slow to follow up on the development of the C-end market. This is based on the fact that most probiotics companies focused on providing raw materials and patents in the early days, focusing on technology and raw material research and development, production (including contract processing) and supply and sales, and did not carry out strong output and building of brands, marketing and channels.
At present, some enterprises have gradually changed their business ideas, expanding from B-end supply to C-end consumption; from selling raw materials to selling brand products, from selling products to technical solutions; in order to obtain excess profits brought about by brand premiums . In the future, in the C-end market, in addition to pure probiotic supplement preparations, dairy products and functional foods may become the largest application market for probiotics.
02、
five drivers
Detonate China's probiotics market
1. Policy-driven: Documents are issued continuously to clarify the industry standards and development direction of probiotics
The market size of 100 billion was not achieved overnight, but was born under the synergistic combination of multiple factors. The secret of the steady growth of the probiotics industry is inseparable from the strong support of national policies, especially the promulgation of the Healthy China Strategy in 2016, which further promoted the development of the industry; followed by the "Probiotics Group Standards" and "General Rules for Food Use Probiotics" The introduction of the industry standard and development direction are clarified.
At the same time, the special seminar during the two sessions in 2022 also focused on the probiotics industry, and proposed to improve the standard system of the probiotics industry to achieve the healthy development of the probiotics industry.
2. Promoted by the epidemic: national health anxiety and demand promote the development of the probiotics market
The sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2019, facing the continuous impact of the pandemic of the century, not only intensified the national fear of the disease, but also awakened the public's attention to improving immunity. According to a survey conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Survey Center and the Joint Questionnaire Network, 70.8% of the respondents paid great attention to improving immunity. Among the specific measures, the top three are: eat more fruits and vegetables, pay attention to nutritional balance; maintain Exercise and exercise; and regular work and rest, not staying up late. Under the epidemic, health anxiety and increasing demand have further promoted the vigorous development of the probiotics market.
After the outbreak of the epidemic, the popularity of online searches for probiotic products has picked up, and the Baidu Index PC + mobile terminal: "Which brand of probiotics is good" has a high daily search volume. It turns out that probiotic products are gaining acceptance and generating strong demand and interest.
3. Technology promotion: the official release of the group logo, China's probiotics market has entered a new starting point for high-quality development
On June 16, 2022, led by the China Society of Food Science and Technology, and jointly participated by 19 scientific research institutions, universities, and enterprises including Jiangnan University and the National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, the group standard of "General Principles of Probiotics for Food" was officially released. The standard was officially established in August 2021, and relevant experts including academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Probiotics Branch of the Chinese Society of Food Science and Technology, and representatives of nearly 20 industries jointly researched and drafted it. The group standard of "General Principles of Probiotics for Food Use" was officially released, marking a new starting point for the standardized and high-quality development of the entire industrial chain in China's probiotics market.
4. Capital flow: The capital market continues to be positive, and major companies have increased their layout
Players in the industry are accelerating their own scale development through capital, and looking at the development of the probiotics industry, mergers and acquisitions are the mainstream means. This typically happened in 2011. DuPont acquired Danisco, the world's second largest industrial enzyme manufacturer headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the form of paying US$5.8 billion and assuming net liabilities of US$500 million. In 2019, Announced that the world's largest probiotic fermenter device was put into production at the DuPont Rochester plant, increasing production capacity by 70%, further strengthening DuPont's leading position in probiotics in the world. In 2018, BY-HEALTH acquired a 100% stake in Australia LSG with 3.514 billion yuan in cash, and its probiotic brand Life-Space has been acquired. In June 2020, Chr. Hansen announced the acquisition of probiotics company Microbiome Labs for 350 million yuan. In November 2020, nutrition and food ingredients giant Kerry Corporation announced that it has acquired Bio-K Plus International (Bio-K), a Canadian probiotic fermented food and beverage company, to further expand Kerry's probiotic product categories.
As a hot golden track in the big health industry, probiotics naturally has no shortage of capital market gold diggers who come across borders. According to public information, since 2010, there have been players in different fields such as pharmaceutical companies, health care products, OTC, and health food, investing in the probiotics track, and there are many new consumer brands in the meal replacement field. WonderLab.
The current domestic probiotics market concentration is relatively scattered, so far it is difficult to say who will be the leader. However, judging from the sales data, probiotic brands with a background in medicine and nutritional health products have a greater advantage in retail pharmacies, and the representatives of them are Jiangzhong Pharmaceutical and Biostime of Jianhe Group. Excluding other channels, the two Sales of probiotics account for half of retail drugstore probiotics.
5. Demand pull: Consumers have multiple demands for health, and the market heat is rapidly rising
In the past year, Xiaohongshu has written more than 240,000 notes on "probiotics", and its popularity is nearly four times that of the top star "Di Lieba". New brands and new products are constantly launched. Among them, probiotic products related to babies, pets and women have received special attention. With the rapid increase in market popularity, new brands rely on the advantages of probiotics, such as WonderLab, Daily Bacteria, Junxiaobao and other cutting-edge brands, through emerging channels such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin. The investors carry out continuous and precise content marketing, and quickly get through the whole process of planting and weeding.
From the perspective of the macro environment of the industry, probiotics will continue to maintain a stable and high-speed growth trend driven by multiple favorable factors such as policies, epidemics, technology, capital, and demand, and will grow towards hundreds of billions or even trillions. Sprint on the level track.
03、
Monopoly of international brands
The upstream of the industrial chain constrains the Chinese market
Although probiotics have become a large market exceeding 100 billion yuan, this huge cake still has its own pain. As can be seen from the figure below, the structure of the probiotics industry is relatively complex. Generally speaking, the upstream is controlled by the strain patent party, the midstream is responsible for production and sales, and the downstream provides product innovation and application solutions.
According to the industry smile curve theory, the core of probiotics should be the upstream R&D and the downstream market. However, upstream companies have strong control over the development of the entire industrial chain by virtue of their patented technology and monopoly on probiotic raw materials. According to the data in the "China Probiotic Supplement Consumer Demand Insight Report", my country's probiotic raw material market is firmly occupied by DuPont and Chr. Hansen, accounting for about 85% of the total.
On the other hand, my country's probiotic brands are concentrated in the link of product application innovation, and are at an absolute disadvantage for the production of probiotic raw materials. Therefore, there is often a saying in the probiotic industry that "in the situation where raw materials and research and development are firmly controlled by the upstream, domestic companies are all A marionette at the mercy of others."
04、
Breakout against the trend
China's probiotics are expected to come first
Fortunately, in recent years, the domestic industry has also made great efforts to break through, and has achieved good results in probiotic research and development patents and raw material production. Among them, Jiangnan University, which ranks first in the world in food majors, has become the third largest probiotic in the world. Patent application unit, and in the process of long-term cooperation with dairy products and functional food companies, further expand the application space of domestic companies for probiotic products, and play a leading role in the development and progress of the entire industrial chain. At present, China's patents in the probiotics industry are second only to the United States, accounting for 26.45% of the global total.
With the support of the industry chain to break the situation, domestic probiotics have also made great progress, and can start to compete with international brands in some fields. In order to further break the monopoly of international brands on China's probiotics market, Beijing Ketuo, the first probiotics listed company, has increased a lot of investment in the research and development of probiotics; at the same time, Jiangsu Weikang, Shanghai Runying, Hebei Yiran And other enterprises are also actively deploying in the research and development of probiotics, starting from the basic level to strengthen the competitive advantage of national brands. I believe that the day when domestic products will replace imported products will not be too far away.
05、
Everything can be probiotics,
the attack and frenzy of the consumer market
At present, the terminal market of probiotics is mainly used in food and beverage, dietary supplements, and animal and plant fields, except for pure probiotic products such as granules, solid beverages, and compressed candies; in the food field, it is mainly used in infant milk powder, yogurt, and food. In beverages; in the field of daily chemicals, products such as probiotic facial cleanser, facial mask and toothpaste have been applied.
The multiple functions of probiotics have made some practitioners believe that it is a "universal medicine". The debate around "whether probiotics are an IQ tax" has never stopped, and it has been pushed to the forefront again and again. In the past, some low-end OEM brands flooded into the market, homogenized products, and started a price war to blindly reduce costs. It is difficult to effectively guarantee the efficacy of products, and even exaggerate the effect of publicity and false publicity. Later, the president of a medical university questioned that the probiotics promoted by a certain group were counterfeit drugs, and said: "All the probiotics currently promoted in China are counterfeit drugs..." The two sides fought each other for many rounds. Although all of these have had a considerable impact on the development of the probiotics industry, they are not enough to shake the wheels of probiotics and cannot stop the momentum of probiotics.
06、
seven industry trends,
Create a new blue ocean of probiotics brands
Based on the research on the probiotics industry, the Tawang Food Consumption Research Institute conducted a questionnaire survey on Chinese consumers and formed a research report in order to grasp first-hand consumption data and gain insights into market opportunities and needs. After gaining insight into the influence of the concept of probiotics+, we predict that there will be seven major trends in the probiotics industry in the future, and these trends will become the direction of future probiotics market opportunities, affect the development of brands, and change the lives of audiences.
Trend 1: Hundreds of billions of highly active probiotics will have the opportunity to lead high growth
Restricted by the hysteresis of domestic probiotic technology, the number of live bacteria in most probiotic products is at the tens of billions level, and some brands are even less than tens of billions, especially the loss after transportation and storage, which is affected by digestive tract gastric acid and Most of the live bacteria that really play a role are killed by the erosion of choline. Therefore, increasing the number of active probiotics in a unit and enhancing the vitality of hundreds of billions of highly active probiotics will be a powerful means to meet the needs of consumers.
Trend 2: Compound strains - probiotic products with compound strains will become a trend
Through the inventory of probiotic product registration, it can be seen that as of April 22, 2020, a total of 137 health food products with probiotics as the main raw material have been approved in my country (including products that have obtained new approval numbers through technology transfer registration) ), among which there are 45 compound products, accounting for more than one-third of the total registered products. It can be seen that compound strains to improve professional efficacy will become a trend of probiotic products.
Trend 3: Segmenting customer groups——Segmenting customer groups is the key for brands to win trust
Consumers' professional awareness of brands is the key to gaining trust. The era when one product can win the world has long passed. It is impossible for a brand to serve everyone, and it is the embodiment of brand professionalism to target a certain group of people and provide solutions. In the future, the development of professional probiotics for children, pregnant women and women will be the key direction for the brand to succeed.
Trend 4: Extra-intestinal health—the demand for extra-intestinal health is an important direction for probiotics
In addition to improving immunity and gastrointestinal health, probiotics also need to consider other needs of consumers. As far as women are concerned, in addition to internal physical health, there are more external needs, such as: beauty and beauty, anti-aging and anti-wrinkle, weight loss and shaping, whitening and skin rejuvenation and other functional needs. On the basis of gastrointestinal health, it is an important direction to focus on the research and development of products such as immunity, oral cavity, women's, mental and emotional health.
Trend 5: Domestic strains - Domestic strains are expected to replace imports and become the first choice of consumers
The characteristics of the human gene sequence show that there are some differences among individuals; while the traditional Chinese concept of nutrition and health care tells us that one side nourishes the other side. In the past, many people would admire imported products from abroad, but with the improvement of domestic brand products, many nutritional and health products are exported as raw materials, repackaged and re-imported abroad; coupled with the current unknown international environment and other factors, companies or brands target Chinese people. , the development of probiotics suitable for Chinese people's gastrointestinal health will be the key product direction of probiotics companies in the future.
Trend 6: Convenience to eat—professional and convenient products have become the direction of research and innovation
According to the feedback from probiotic users, eating probiotics at home is the main scenario; solid sticks are the main product form for users to buy probiotics. Convenience is the main reason for everyone to buy probiotics, but trust and endorsement are essential. Therefore, how to make it convenient for consumers to eat and gain trust is the strategic premise for brands to win the market.
Trend 7: Course of treatment and absorption - treatment method and composition form are prerequisites for effective absorption
Through the survey of probiotics users, we found that probiotics users have developed a fixed habit of eating probiotics. Among the surveyed population, more than 70% are consuming probiotics every week. Therefore, we predict that the consumption of probiotics will be more likely to be recognized by consumers, and at the same time, the unit price and consumption of products will be increased to the greatest extent. frequency. In addition, probiotics are highly sensitive and will be inactivated after reaching the human body. The deep embedding technology allows live probiotics to effectively reach the stomach and intestines. Effective absorption is the key. Therefore, the treatment direction and composition form are more conducive to the absorption of probiotics. It can be seen that in the future development of probiotics products, achieving better therapeutic effects through composition forms is the mainstream technology research and development direction of digestion and absorption.
Overall, although probiotics have been discovered and proposed for more than 100 years, the current probiotics market is still in its infancy, especially the C-end market has just emerged, and the entire market is full of opportunities. However, in the critical period of industry vitality and localization upgrading, the industry environment is changing rapidly, so this 100 billion market is not a feast for everyone, especially new players need to grasp the key nodes of the market and lock the core users. To meet the consumer demand for modernization and convenience, and to achieve precise market entry, so as to gain a firm foothold in the industry and continue to charge towards the blue ocean of the 100-billion-level market.
Tawang Consulting is a consumer-oriented food brand full-case consulting company, focusing on the food and health industry, and is committed to assisting food companies to deeply understand "consumers", determine the market and win business success. Food brands originate from the market and also serve the market. Consumers are the main body of the market. Food brands should take consumers as the strategic starting point in order to win in the market.
Tawang Consulting created the "3W Consumption Strategy" methodology, and guided by "consumer demand, consumption cognition, and consumption path" to build or reconstruct the corporate value chain. Help enterprises to formulate brand strategy, brand building, digital integrated marketing, and provide full-cycle and full-case services from the top level to the landing.
Tawang Consulting is the vice chairman unit of the School of Food Science and Technology of Jiangnan University, a member unit of Shanghai Food Association and Health Products Association, a research unit of China Food Brand Research Institute, and a member unit of China Food Innovation and Development Community. Customers served include Ziyan Food, Qizheng Tibetan Medicine, Yihai International (Haidilao/Chopsticks Kitchen), Pastoralism, Rukang Group, Huangpin Food, Yangcheng Lake Brand, Kawasaki Hot Pot Ingredients, Emperor Bird’s Nest, Master Bao, Zhong Enterprises/brands such as Kejinde and Aolevita.