WATCH: Morishita Jintan provides country breakdown of probiotic markets in Asia

At the Vitafoods Asia exhibition in Singapore, Yuji Sakuta, manager at the international business department, told NutraIngredients-Asia​: “East Asian countries like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are sophisticated probiotic markets with advanced biotechnology​.”

In South East Asia, he said the most advanced probiotic market is Singapore, however the largest is still Indonesia, due to its 260m-strong population.

He observed that there were some probiotic trends that were country-specific. For instance, in Japan, he said people cared more about probiotic products that could relieve constipation.

On the other hand, countries like Vietnam face sanitation issues, hence people there look for probiotics to treat diarrhoea.

Despite some differences between countries, Sakuta said an overall trend in Asia was infant probiotics as people were becoming more aware of improving infant health. The China market largely led this trend.

On the challenges of bringing Japanese probiotics into Asia, Sakuta explained: “Japanese formulas typically add more [ingredients] to make it attractive.”​

However, this makes registration more difficult: “The more ingredients you use in your product, the more documents you need to submit​,” he added.

Watch the video to find out more.