ASEAN consumers looking at immunity boosting food during pandemic

Latest report released by Mintel showed that consumers in Southeast Asia are feeling the impact of COVID-19 on their daily lives, most importantly, on the food and beverages that they consume.
While staying at home might be one of the most effective measures to protect from the virus, consumers are becoming more proactive to turn to home remedies and health supplements to boost their immune strength. Such changes in consumer behaviour during a major public health crisis, which could last for more than a year, might have a long-lasting impact on the way consumers eat and drink in the future.
Various countries in ASEAN have their own unique set of remedies which are passed from one generation to another. In Vietnam, consumers turn to fermented black garlic whereas in Indonesia, consumers look up to the traditional jamu which is a concoction of many types of herbal and natural ingredients. In modern Singapore, consumers look up for vitamin C, multivitamins, and other health supplements to boost their immune system. All in all, manufacturers involved in functional, nutritional and health supplements business reported strong growth in demand during the 1st half of 2020, all thanks to COVID-19 which has raised the much needed awareness on their products.
In fact, demand for food and drink products with immunity boosting properties has been growing even before the pandemic. New product launches with immune support is now much wider than before extending to many food and drink product categories from growing-up milk for infants and children to yogurt and juices for the adult consumers. The following Chart 1.0 showed the proportion of new product launches in various product categories from March 2017 to February 2020.
As the pandemic is expected to last till early 2021, manufacturers of immunity-boosting food and drink products are taking advantage of this crisis to promote the importance of immunity to strengthen oneself from the virus. Immunity-enhancing products include vitamin-fortified food and drinks as well as spoonable yogurt, drinking/cultured yogurt and nutritionally-complete drinks amongst others.
The Mintel report also highlighted that in Thailand, immunity support is in high demand (60%) among consumers aged 55 and above compared to under half for those aged below 55. This also creates growing demand for special nutritional food for the aged, a new up and coming category, which is yet to be fully explored.