Health and Wellness Sales Near $100B Mark

Mar 5, 2007 3:00 AM

HARLEYSVILLE, Pa. -- U.S. consumers continue to feed the packaged goods health and wellness industry, which passed $91 billion in 2006 sales, according to the Natural Marketing Institute. The figure represents a growth of 15% over 2005. Organic foods and beverages showed a 19% increase in sales to more than $15 billion, in large part due to the number of product offerings in the making their way into the marketplace. However, functional/fortified foods and beverages continue to capture the largest sales, which totaled $36 billion in 2006, an increase of 18% over the year before. Natural/organic personal care enjoyed the fastest growth, up 24% to more than $6 billion last year. The findings are part of NMI‘s annual Health & Wellness Trends Database research study, conducted in 2006 among more than 5,800 U.S. households.