Any particular reason why most fitness supplements are imported?

[mike324]

In case you hadn't noticed many Thais are on a low income anyhow, and such luxury items as "health supplements:" are not affordable supplements to their diet.

Also, "health supplements" are a Farang thing ....... many Thais do not believe there is any value in them.

Additionally,, a large minority of Thais, as are many in Southeast Asia, are somewhat Lactose intolerant ..... they feel "bloated and gassy" when they drink milk or take Milk products.

All this leads up to the fact that there is not a great market among Thais for protein supplements or "Whey powder" from Milk products.

it is a Farang thing, mostly not Thai.

That is also why Butter or Cheese is so expensive in Thailand ..... it is mainly bought by Farangs, and not Thais.

Don't understand why people keep on thinking supplements are an "luxury" item and a very foreign thing, its not! You can decent priced vitamins (made in thailand) from local pharmacies, the basics such as vitamin C,B, E, Iron, etc. These are normally dispensed from bulk packaging and given to you in a small zip lock bag.

I agree majority of the low income don't take supplements, its the same if you compare to supplement users in any first world countries. The demographic will point to middle income folks. Just because people don't take multivitamins, or whey powders, etc the more "foreign" supplements, it does not mean supplements is not popular in Thailand.

The Thai market for supplement is small compare to western countries, and not as many people are taking it yet, but many people get have the misconception that is an luxury item only the rich can afford and take, which is totally false.

Whats interesting here is that vitamins purchasing habit here is actually pretty evenly divided between retail/pharmacy and direct sales (Multi-level marketing), whereas in Western countries its more like 70% retail and 20% direct sales.