The Philippine natural health products industry is an emerging contributor to consumer welfare and inclusive growth in the country. Providing affordable and organic sources of personal care products, it caters to a niche market which can expand through developments in its supply chain management, production technologies and research and development. In the medium to long-term, the industry envisions itself to be a leading research and development center of natural health products in the ASEAN region, contributing to the country’s economic development and job generation.
One of the biggest global trends in the past 20 years has been the growing interest in health and well-being. It has become increasingly important to consumers to improve both their own health and the environment they live in. Natural and organic household and home care products that include cleaners, surface, laundry and dish cleaners, pet food, flowers and linens and fibers are becoming more in demand by consumers who are interested in their health and well-being, inducing more job opportunities in the sector.
The industry’s two core competencies are: 1) the presence of diverse natural resources and 2) the availability of land and the natural condition and location of the Philippines.
In 2008 to 2011, health supplements grew by 40.35%, while personal care products increased by 34.25%. However, in 2009, these same products posted only a slight growth of 2.8% and 7.1%, respectively. The decrease for personal care products was caused by the decrease in imports by Australia and Malaysia, two of the top importers of Philippine personal care products.
Meanwhile, medicinal plants/food posted the biggest leap, growing from 13% in 2009 to 111% in 2011. The continuous annual increase in the exports of medicinal plants/food can be attributed to the increase in demand of raw materials brought about by the increasing demand for organic and natural health products in the world market.
At present, multinational and local companies cater to the expanding demand of the domestic and international markets, with 85% belonging to the micro, small and medium-scale enterprise (MSME) category and 15% classified as large-scale. Products can be categorized into two: natural ingredients (i.e. essential oils, extracts, semi-processed and plant parts) in the upstream, and finished products (i.e. herbal medicines, traditional medicines, cosmetics, health supplements, green fertilizers and pesticides, household and homecare products, and veterinary/animal products) in the downstream.
