Anaheim, Calif. – Have you ever visited Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Trader Joe’s, or any other store that offers organic foods and products? Imagine standing in a store thirty times bigger, where the maker of each product gives you a sample and answers any question you have about it.
You have arrived at the Natural Products Expo West/Supply Expo.
Natural Products Expo West/Supply Expo is held annually at the Anaheim Convention Center in conjunction with the Healthy Baking Seminar, Nutracon Conference, and the Fresh Ideas Organic Marketplace. According to its website, it is the world’s largest natural and organic products trade show.
This event is where entrepreneurs as well as giants in the natural and organic products industries mingle, network, and market their goods among themselves as well as the to event attendees which, this year, was a record 56,000 people, March 11-14.
The Expo is not open to the public, but to those directly or indirectly involved in the natural and organic foods or health products industries.
Those who can register to attend for free include: owners and staff of gyms, spas or health clubs, retailers, distributors, brokers, and importers and exporters of health products.
It appears that the recession has not stopped people from buying healthier, oftentimes more expensive, products. According to Nutrition Business Journal, despite the recession, throughout 2009 Americans consumers continued to choose foods and beverages with health and wellness attributes.
Whole Foods, the leading natural and organic foods supermarket, experience about 1.5 percent sales growth in 2009 and a surprising seven percent for first quarter 2010. Safeway, Inc., on the other hand, experienced a 10 percent drop in revenue between March 2009 and now.
Natural is ‘in’
Products at the Expo ranged widely from organic chocolate from the mountains of Peru to natural cosmetics made in United States. The main thing they have in common: They’re natural. Categories include organic, supplements, health and beauty, natural and specialty foods, and pet products.
Many of the trade show exhibitors have quite a story to tell, as their business philosophies, similar to their products, relate in some way to sustainability, or maintaining balance in the environment in which the products are made.
For example, one company at the event, Sambazon, produces sweet berry juice made from the acai berries of Brazil, which are a rich source of antioxidants. This powerhouse berry grows naturally in the wild. Sambazon employs local Brazilian growers to supply its berries, which helps them live off the land and preserve its natural state.
One of the founders of Sambazon, who looked like he had just come from the beach, explained that he discovered acai smoothies while on a surf trip to Brazil. After arriving home in the United States, he began making acai smoothies.
Another exhibitor was Los Angeles-based Jarrow Formulas, which creates nutritional supplements, and carries close to 400 products from athletic to digestive to joint nutrition. Mark Becker, Director of Advertising and Communications, explained that the biggest growth is in Probiotics, digestive, and immune products. Unlike many products one might see GNC (General Nutrition Centers, Inc.), Jarrow formulas, like other supplements found at ExpoWest, are all natural.
Gaia Herbs showcased at the event its innovative upcoming website, which has the ability to trace any product by entering its ID. The technology was developed by branding firm Pure Branding. The website identifies every ingredient and even the field from which the product was made.
For more information about ExpoWest visit http://www.expowest.com
Natural Products Expo East will be in Boston, October 13-16, 2010.
