The business programme of the Healthy Life Area at the 25th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum featured a panel discussion entitled ‘Russian Dietary Supplement Industry: An Industry View of the Strategic Objectives for Development’.

The event was attended by Yevgeni Nifantyev, Representative of the Committee on Industry and Trade of the Russian State Duma, Alexander Zhestkov, Executive Director of the Self-regulatory organization Union of Dietary Supplements Producers, Natalia Prokopyeva, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Evalar, Sergei Shulyak, General Director of the DSM Group, and Vladimir Bessonov, Director of the Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Doctor of Biological Sciences from the Federal Research Centre for Nutrition and Biotechnology

According to the WHO, almost a third of the world’s population lacks the necessary minerals, approximately one billion people suffer from vitamin D deficiency, and 20 million babies are born with abnormalities due to a lack of iodine in their mother’s diet. According to the Institute of Nutrition, inadequate vitamin and mineral intake is a year-round problem that needs to be addressed. Dietary supplements are the most affordable and logical answer to nutritional imbalances, and they are regularly taken by 90% of the population in Japan, by between 45% and 80% in the USA, 59% in Denmark, 54% in South Korea, and 43% in Germany. In Russia, the figure doesn’t exceed 20%. As part of the Demography National Project, public education programmes aimed at providing nutritional support and preventing illnesses arising as a result of nutritional imbalances could be developed by a public-private partnership to reduce pressure on the healthcare system.

“We expect the market for dietary supplements to grow to over RUB 100 billion in 2022. The market is transforming from a narrow, niche-like pharmacy segment into a major social industry. Vitamins played a role in anti-Covid measures, and sales for vitamin C reached historic levels during the pandemic,” Chairman of the Board of Directors at Evalar Natalia Prokopieva said.

The experts discussed the importance of vitamins and dietary supplements as a tool for achieving active longevity in an ageing population, the relevance of developing a strategy for the dietary supplement industry as a nationally significant sector affecting society’s health and active longevity, the overall outlook for strategies of this kind, and which issues were most relevant today in terms of import substitution in the dietary supplement industry.

The session was held with the support of Evalar.