Over the last year, 8.1m Australians have been buying vitamins, minerals or supplements, equating to 42% of the population—a substantial increase on the 6.6m consumers who shopped for supplements in 2011.
This comes to a backdrop of more than 30% growth in sales of Australian complementary medicines in Asian markets, amid surging Chinese demand in particular.
At home, a study by Roy Morgan Research found the category was especially popular with women, nearly half of whom buy them at least once in an average six months compared to 34% of men.
Women aged between 35 and 64 were are the most likely to bought complementary medicines, while, at just 14% of the population, men aged under 25 were far and away the least likely.
As the number of Australians buying vitamins, minerals and supplements has grown, some striking trends have emerged in terms of where they are going to purchase them.
Most notable has been the increasing tendency among consumers to visit the chemist, rising from 44% of all vitamin-buyers in 2011 to 54% this year.
By contrast, supplements buyers are less likely to make their purchases from supermarkets, with the proportion falling from 33% to 28% over the same period, with Woolworths/Safeway suffering the most in this regard.
Health-food stores (9%, down from 14%) and discount stores (2%, down from 3%) are also falling from favour among vitamin buyers.
“Chemists have long been the most popular place to buy vitamins, minerals and supplements, and this popularity is picking up even more as the market grows,” said Andrew Price of Roy Morgan Research.
“Of course, supermarkets tend to stock a less diverse range of these products than chemists, so cannot always cater for consumers with specific needs.”
Battlers and Bundy: Why does the Sunshine State love its rum?
Queenslanders like to be seen to do things differently to the rest of Australia, and their rum-drinking habits are no exception, Roy Morgan Research has also found.
Whereas 5.4% of Australian adults consume some kind of rum at least once in an average month, this figure jumps to 9.8% of residents of the Sunshine State.
When it comes to dark rum, the difference is even more striking, with Queenslanders (8.3%) being more than twice as likely as the average Australian, at just 4.0%, to indulge in the spirit.
The only other state that comes even close is Tasmania (4.1%), ahead of South Australia (2.2%) and Victoria (2.7%).
Driving Queenslanders’ taste for dark rum is one local brand, Bundaberg. Almost 6.0% of Queensland adults drink Bundy, well in excess of the Australian average (2.4%).
Produced in the town it was named after since 1888, Bundaberg is enjoyed by above-average proportions of Queenslanders in all regions of the state except the Gold Coast. Its popularity peaks in eastern Brisbane, where 9.9% of residents drink it, and Cairns (7.8%).
So why is Bundy so popular with Banana Benders, as Queenslanders are known?
Judging by their above-average fondness for another iconic homegrown beverage, XXXX beer, it could be down to state pride. In an average month, 5.4% of Australian adults consume some variety of XXXX, compared with 14.3% of Queenslanders.
“A sense of regional pride may contribute to the spirit’s popularity in its home state, especially since we see the same over-representation of Queenslanders when it comes to XXXX consumption,” said Andrew Price of Roy Morgan Research.
“But while the brand is inextricably linked with the Sunshine State, this shouldn’t prevent it from being drunk more widely across the nation. Obviously, there are people from other states who do consume it, but there is plenty of room for expanding its national penetration.
The research’s company’s consumer profiling tool, Helix Personas, shows that people from the up-and-coming, house-proud “Today’s Families” demographic, and low-income, true-blue “Battlers” community, are considerably more likely than the average Australian to drink Bundaberg.
Both groups can be found around the country—Battlers in particular are distributed widely across urban and country areas of all states and territories.
“If Bundaberg focused on reaching these segments of the population with tailored communications, they could find the brand’s market increasing exponentially,” added Price.
Kiwi exporters call for enhanced FTAs with Asian countries
A New Zealand export lobby group has urged the government to enhance the country's free trade agreements with Asean and China.
A recent survey of exporters showed that Asean was most mentioned as the next market to enter, followed by China, according to the Employers and Manufacturers Association.
"We have good free-trade agreements with both China and Asean, but now is clearly the time to start enhancing those agreements with ways to remove barriers to New Zealand exporters," chief executive officer Kim Campbell said in a statement.
"The barriers posed by registration systems, approval systems and over-regulation within some markets should be the focus of the next round of negotiations," said Campbell.
"There are international standards that could become the basis of acceptance of many goods, and mutual recognition of standards and regulatory controls is another way to allow New Zealand manufactured goods to enter China and Asean countries."
With the Asean agreement due for review this year, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) under negotiation, it was a timely reminder of the focus of exporters, said Campbell.
Regulator calls for submissions for salmonella bacteriophage and GM corn
The antipodean food regulator has called for public submissions on an application seeking permission to use a salmonella bacteriophage for use as a processing aid, and for the use of a genetically modified strain of corn.
Steve McCutcheon, chief executive of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (Fsanz) said the regulator had assessed the application for the salmonella bacteriophage, which seeks to use the phage to reduce salmonella in fresh meat and poultry products.
“Salmonella is one of the most commonly reported causes of foodborne illness, with fresh meat and poultry often implicated as a source of infection,” McCutcheon said.
“This phage is highly specific to salmonella species and is for use during post-slaughter processing of raw meat.”
Fsanz’s assessment concluded that the phage was technologically justified and safe to use.
It has also called for views on a corn line that is genetically modified to be tolerant to certain herbicides.
The regulator has put the corn, which has been modified to be tolerant to the herbicides glyphosate and glufosinate ammonium, through a safety assessment from a molecular, toxicological and nutritional point of view.
“No public health or safety issues were identified and the corn was found to be as safe as its conventional counterpart,” said McCutcheon.
The regulator has invited submissions from government agencies, public health professionals, industry and the community before it notifies ministers responsible for food regulation.
Under this process, the ministers can then decide to adopt, amend, or reject standards or they can ask for a review. The closing date for both submissions is 6 November 2015.