The Analyst’s Take: Top takeaways from NBJ’s Herbs and Botanicals Report

Outpacing the industry: Herbs and botanicals has been the fastest growing category in the industry since 2014, with the exception of 2020 when immune and general health propelled vitamins to the top growth spot. Growth in 2021 also healthily outpaced total supplements, with herbs and botanicals at 9.7% versus total supplement growth of 7.5%. The strong growth in the market has led to nearly $5 billion in added dollars since 2017, and is on pace to pass $15 billion in total sales by 2025.

Earning consumer trust: NBJ’s consumer study examined sentiment toward herbs and botanicals as compared to other dietary supplement categories, as well as over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription pharmaceutical (pharma) solutions, across health conditions. Overall, the majority of consumers, 58%, believe that herbs and botanicals are safer than OTC and pharma products. Additionally, across almost all individual health conditions or concerns they turn to herbs and botanicals before OTC or pharma products and even other dietary supplements. The conditions where there is the largest delta over other products also happen to be two of the top trending concerns: sleep and mood/stress.

‘Shroom for growth: Although arguably not an herb or botanical, we do cover fungi under this category, and it has certainly been gaining attention. Thanks to immune health benefits, mushroom supplements surged ahead in 2020 with 60.2% growth, opening a runway for growth across other health conditions. The market is set to more than quadruple between 2017 and 2025, with the strongest growth projected in brain health. This report has NBJ’s first breakout of mushrooms across sub-categories (e.g. reishi, cordyceps, mushroom blends)—and the data points to a market dominated by multi-mushroom formulas.