10 local bio-search firms eye Japanese market

At least 10 Filipino bio-search firms are hoping to tap the lucrative Japanese lifestyles of health and sustainability (Lohas) market to boost the country’s organic and natural product exports.

Food supplements manufacturers Ecarma Health Options, Green Leaf Herbals, Inc., Herbcare Corp., Natural Quality Corp., and Pascual Laboratories; virgin coconut oil (VCO)-based food supplements distributors Elixirs Pacific International, Corp., Prosource Int’l. Inc., and Viviendo Philippines, Inc.; and, personal care product makers Rainiers R & D Inst., Inc., and RCC Amazing Touch Int’l, Inc. recently met with Nobuo Iwasawa, a Japanese health and wellness expert, to present their respective credentials and manufacturing capabilities to supply the growing Lohas market.

These companies are also participating in Bio-Search, a health and wellness show organized by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), an export promotions agency of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Iwasawa, founder, president and CEO of Health and Business Magazine Co. Ltd., was appointed by the ASEAN Japan Centre (AJC) to evaluate the Filipino herbal and organic food supplement production and manufacturing companies.

During a recent three-day visit, Iwasawa toured each company’s factories for further assessment of each candidate’s current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) and quality compliance certification.

The three companies who would pass Iwasawa’s evaluation would be granted an opportunity to exhibit in the upcoming 1st ASEAN Health and Wellness Exhibition to be held at the AJC Permanent Exhibition Hall in Tokyo, Japan from 17 May to 31 July 2006.

The Lohas movement has dictated to Japan’s fast growing health conscious public.

An integrated market for goods (including health care and natural cosmetics) and services that primarily appeals to consumers’ environmental and social awareness and responsibility, Lohas includes, among other things, advocacy for healthy lifestyle attitudes; renewable power/energy; alternative transportation (hybrid vehicles); energy-efficient electronics and appliances, aside from natural and organic foods and beverages; personal care products (skin care, hair care, cosmetics); vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements/alternative healthcare.

A recent study revealed that 29 percent of Japan’s population is into Lohas.

Its primary consumers are in their 20s to 50s, strongly LOHAS-inclined, and consists of young families with children, educated women, and those who are in their early retirement age.

They are described as shoppers who "put premium on information, especially about products and services, attuned to trends and brand images, and considerably goes for quality."

Iwasawa, a noted Lohas authority who not only wrote extensive articles advocating such conscientious living, but also a distinguished authority and active speaker at various health and nutrition conferences, disclosed that the Japanese nutrition market alone has reached $29 million, or Y3.2 billion in sales in 2004.

This market includes dietary supplements and functional foods, and is only one of the components of the Lohas movement.

If Japan has Lohas, the United States has Cultural Creatives.

The term, culled by sociologist Paul Ray together with psychologist Sherry Anderson, revealed that this is the newest American subculture that is fast gaining ground.