For July’s COVID-19 and the Natural Products Industry feature article, Vitamin Retailer spoke with Len Monheit, CEO, Trust Transparency Center, Spring TX, and asked him the following question:
VR: Looking at product on shelf, what percent of the supply chain for dietary supplements was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how are both the supply chain and natural products on retail shelf doing today? Recommendations?
Monheit: I would have to intuitively state that over 50 percent of the supplement supply chain was impacted in some fashion. Some disruptions were temporary, some more long-lasted.
The first impact was goods traditionally sourced from Asia, associated with immunity or overall wellness, flying off shelves. Secondary impacts involved supply chain and logistics impacts, including labor, packaging supplies and other inputs.
Several products on store shelves remain scarce, particularly elderberry and zinc ingredients, and there have been instances, particularly with the former, where adulteration to take advantage of popularity has occurred.
We are now hearing of backup supply coming online in some categories, but in others, the demand was so high that this year’s planted and harvested inventory of some botanical ingredients, especially organics, has been fully utilized.
You may find the below chart from our founder Scott Steinford on ingredient sourcing from China interesting.
