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10 Interesting Things You Didn’t Know about the European Omega-3 Industry

As you may have experienced in the past, trade shows often become more of a meeting place to connect with customers and prospects, with less time to be out walking the aisles and attending seminars.  Understanding market changes and trending can add immense value to strategic business decision-making and your trade show experience. GOED has […]

As you may have experienced in the past, trade shows often become more of a meeting place to connect with customers and prospects, with less time to be out walking the aisles and attending seminars.  Understanding market changes and trending can add immense value to strategic business decision-making and your trade show experience.

GOED has just completed its latest market research report, “The EPA and DHA Omega-3 Ingredient Market Report.” This 480+ page report is an extensive review of the global ingredients market for the 2012-13 years, and includes global information by source and oil type, geographic region and end use application.

To help your preparation and planning for the Health Ingredients Europe show on Dec 2-4^th, here are 10 market facts to help you better understand the European omega-3 market and provide some pre-show intelligence.

1. Europe saw strong growth in supplements in 2013, despite being a more mature omega-3 market, and was driven by a few key sectors like krill oils and cod liver oils.
2. The total volume of omega-3 oils sold in Europe in 2013 was up 5% from 2012 and the total value was up 8% from 2012.
3. Omega-3 concentrates are the largest segment by value in Europe, in large part to due to the widespread availability of pharmaceutical omega-3s across European markets.
4. Pharmaceutical omega-3s are, though, not yet available in all European countries and this represents a significant growth opportunity. Trend to watch: generics are starting to enter the market and competition will change going forward.
5. From a raw material sources point of view, krill oil was the fastest growing segment in percentage terms, by more than four times the next fastest segment.
6. It was, however, cod liver oils that added the most volume to the market due to increased production.
7. Refined anchovy oils declined in volume by 2.5% but increased significantly in value by 24% primarily due to crude oil price increases.
8. By application, clinical nutrition saw the fastest volume growth as the benefits of omega-3s in this sector are becoming more well-known.Europe has one of the largest food and beverage markets for omega-3s, driven by a few key countries.
9. Supplements added the most volume and value in Europe and were largely driven by increased consumption of cod liver oil compensating for the decline in anchovy volumes.

If you’d like to learn more on how to access this report or one of GOED’s many market research reports on other segments of the omega-3 value chain, please send me an email at [email protected] or come by the GOED Omega-3 Pavilion at stand H74 during the show. I hope to see you there.