Jeff Crowther, Executive Director of NPA China, said: “Currently, China’s health product industry trails the US, Japan and EU in sales, but has tremendous potential for sizeable growth. With proper regulatory change, China will become the largest market for natural products by 2020. Simply put, China cannot be ignored, nor can it lack industry representation”.
Safeguard for the global supply chain
The possibility for this growth has been safeguarded and strengthened by the announcement that NPA are to continue to receive a grant from the US Department of Commerce, through which it has been involved in a China Market Development Co-operator Program (CMDCP) since 2007.
The first award for this development was given in 2007, as part of the Annual Market Development Cooperation Program (AMDCP). The main aim of this initiative was to build private and public partnership by providing federal assistance to ‘non-profit export multipliers’. This refers to trade associations that are able to reach small and medium size enterprises.
The decision to continue with this funding is important for the development of the natural products market and effectively safeguards the supply chain for natural products on a global scale.
“NPA is grateful for receiving the MDCP grant. It has allowed the association to be the first and only non-profit trade association dedicated to the natural product industry in China. Over the last three years, NPA-China has established solid relationships with Chinese government agencies and organizations, which have assisted the association in its China endeavours and developed important partners for the association members”, said Crowther.
Building on rapid progress
The NPA is America’s largest and oldest non-profit organisation dedicated to the natural products industry. The association represents more than 10 000 retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of natural products, including foods, dietary supplements and health/beauty companies.
The rapid growth of natural cosmetics within this category has been well reported and has been the major boom market of the cosmetics industry as a whole.
In a wider sense, the growth of the cosmetics industry in China has been one of the redeeming features of the economic recession. Throughout periods of intense economic difficulty, global companies such as Avon and L’Oreal have reported high growth in their Chinese markets.
This decision to continue to develop ties between China and America for natural product trade is a project the NPA sees as a promising economic prospect.