ABC report: Herbal supplements notch 4.4% sales growth in wake of pandemic

The latest HerbalGram Herb Market Report showed that sales increased 4.4% year over year to hit $15.6 billion in 2023. That’s up from the previous year (2022) but far below the big sales gain of the pandemic years.

Hank Schultz, Senior Editor

September 23, 2024

4 Min Read

At a Glance

  • Herbal supplement sales showed 4.4% growth in latest ABC report.
  • Solid growth number followed the big gains and declines of the pandemic years.
  • Industry is poised to see if upper single-digit sales growth years will return.

Sales of herbal supplements have regained momentum, according to the American Botanical Council’s annual Herb Market Report. The 4.4% year-over-year growth in 2023 — while still a healthy figure – was far off the sales boom achieved during the pandemic years. 

The report, published annually in ABC’s HerbalGram magazine, showed that annual sales of herbal dietary supplements hit $15.6 billion in 2023. That represented a $533 overall expenditure increase over 2022. 

The 4.4% growth figure comes on the heels of 2022, when sales shrank for the first time in more than a decade. Sales in 2022 were down 1.8% over the year before. 

However, annual sales increases have been 7.5% or higher since 2015. Sales increased by a hefty 9.6% in 2021 and a staggering 17.8% in 2020, years in which markets were distorted by pandemic-induced demand spikes. 

Solid growth number after pandemic tumult 

HerbalGram editor Tyler Smith, one of the report’s authors, characterized the sales figure as a return to the solid growth the category has enjoyed for more than 15 years. 

“After record-breaking sales of herbal supplements during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic and the first drop in sales in nearly a decade in 2022, the return to annual sales growth in 2023 is remarkable,” Smith said. 

The 2023 report, like in other years, was based on data culled from SPINS, a Chicago-based market research company, and information from Nutrition Business Journal, an Informa publication. The data is broken down into sales in the natural channel and in mainstream market outlets. 

The report focuses on sales of dietary supplements organized by their chief herbal component.  

The leading seller in the mainstream channel was psyllium, primarily because of its use in popular OTC laxative products. Sales of the ingredient hit $276 million in 2023, representing a 2.7% year-over-year increase. 

Backside of the immune health craze 

The No. 2 seller in the mainstream channel was elderberry, an immune health ingredient, and in surging demand during the pandemic. Elderberry sales in that channel reached $177 million, which represented a 28% year-over-year decline. Elderberry ranked No. 3 in the natural channel, with sales of $24 million, representing a 20% year-over-year decline. 

Has market for turmeric matured? 

Turmeric ranked No. 2 in the mainstream channel, with sales of $133.3 million, representing 3.7% growth. The herb ranked No. 1 in the natural channel, where it recorded $37 million in sales, which was unchanged from the year before.  

While the momentum in turmeric sales has slowed to a crawl, it could be a case of the herb approaching market saturation. For context, the HerbalGram report that reported 2013 data showed turmeric sales accounted for only $4.4 million in the mainstream channel that year. It was the leading seller in the natural channel that year with $21.3 million in sales. 

Big sales growth winners 

Among the sales growth leaders in the natural channel were barberry (Berberis vulgaris, Berberidaceae), which saw sales increase by 98.3% to reach $8.4 million. The botanical is a major source of the compound berberine, which has been the subject of a TikTok craze that extolls the ingredient’s weight loss benefits. It has been dubbed “Nature’s Ozempic,” alluding to the popular weight loss drug. 

And in the 52 weeks ending on Aug. 5, 2024, barberry grew 59.2% in dollar sales and 68.8% in unit sales compared to a year ago, according to SPINS data. 

One natural channel sales growth winner in 2023 was all forms of mushroom products. Sales of these products increased by 31% during the year to hit $20.9 million. 

In the mainstream channel, the big sales growth winners were wheat grass/barley grass products and beet root offerings. Both ingredient categories achieved sales growth of more than 100% during the year.  

The increase in beet root sales seems to be attributable to widening the appeal of an ingredient to new categories of customers, according to ABC’s report. 

“Beet root supplements, for example, once used primarily among athletes for potential performance benefits, are finding new marketing opportunities in the cardiovascular health and energy categories,” the report stated. 

What’s the new normal? 

The 2023 data shows the market may be returning to some form of normality after the excess of the pandemic years. But it’s not clear what the new normal will look like. 

“It remains to be seen whether such growth will be reminiscent of the modest increases seen in the first decade of the 2000s or a return to the more robust sales growth of the 2010s,” the report concluded. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

Hank Schultz

Senior Editor, Informa

Hank Schultz has been the senior editor of SupplySide Supplement Journal (formerly Natural Products Insider) since early 2023. He can be reached at [email protected]

Prior to joining the Informa team, he was an editor at NutraIngredients-USA, a William Reed Business Media publication.

His approach to industry journalism was formed via a long career in the daily newspaper field. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in journalism and German, Hank was an editor at the Tempe Daily News in Arizona. He followed that with a long stint working at the Rocky Mountain News, a now defunct daily newspaper in Denver, where he rose to be one of the city editors. The newspaper won two Pulitzer Prizes during his time there.

The changing landscape of the newspaper industry led him to explore other career paths. He began his career in the natural products industry more than a decade ago at New Hope Natural Media, which was then part of Penton and now is an Informa brand. Hank formed friendships and partnerships within the industry that still inform his work to this day, which helps him to bring an insider’s perspective, tempered with an objective journalist’s sensibility, to his in-depth reporting.

Harkening back to his newspaper days, Hank considers the readers to be the primary stakeholders whose needs must be met. Report the news quickly, comprehensively and above all, fairly, and readership and sponsorships will follow.

In 2015, Hank was recognized by the American Herbal Products Association with a Special Award for Journalistic Excellence.

When he’s not reporting on the supplement industry, Hank enjoys many outside pursuits. Those include long distance bicycle touring, mountain climbing, sailing, kayaking and fishing. Less strenuous pastimes include travel, reading (novels and nonfiction), studying German, noodling on a harmonica, sketching and a daily dose of word puzzles in The New York Times.

Last but far from least, Hank is a lifelong fan and part owner of the Green Bay Packers.

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