Fonterra is hoping to capitalise on the booming Well-Being and Medical Nutrition segments in China and ASEAN with its new portfolio brand, Nutiani which will focus on the physical, inner and mental well-being sectors, which Euromonitor estimated to be worth US$66 billion globally with a healthy 6% growth annually.
Under the physical wellbeing category, Fonterra will address concerns such as muscle health and sarcopenia, mobility, weight management, and malnutrition. Meanwhile, its inner wellbeing portfolio will include immunity, digestive, metabolic health, and beauty from within, while cognitive health, stress and mood and sleep are part of its mental wellbeing category.
The broad portfolio will provide services across market insights, product development, and scientifically backed ingredients from Fonterra itself such as lactoferrin, probiotics, and lipids.
Fonterra Chief Innovation and Brand Manager Komal Mistry-Mehta said, “We will use Fonterra’s existing expertise in nutrition science to develop targeted solutions, while opening up opportunities for strategic partnerships to deliver access to new markets and consumers.”
Fonterra sees China and Southeast Asia as the markets with the biggest opportunity for Nutiani. In China alone, annual growth of the physical, inner and well-being category is estimated at 12% while in Southeast Asia, it is 7.5%, both faster than global average growth.
Consumers in the Asia Pacific region are becoming more educated and health-conscious, and with growing ageing population, demand for nutrition-based products will only accelerate in the future. The rising consumer awareness on quality and sustainability of food and beverage products is also exacerbated by various governments’ efforts to promote healthy lifestyle – for example lower sugar, lesser cholesterol/fat contents, lesser sodium in food and beverage products amongst others.
In China, for example, the government has promoted and regulated Foods for Special Medical Purposes (FSMP) as a means to strengthen nutritional support so as to reduce the high number of chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity in its population. This indirectly benefits Fonterra which is also hoping to capitalise on this sector (FSMP) which was estimated to be worth Rmb 7.72 billion (US$1.1 billion) in 2020.
