HPA-China is hosting its annual China Dietary Supplement Market Overview Event at Expo West on March 4th. However, a couple of speakers most likely will not be able to travel to the U.S. from China due to the travel ban. If the ban is not lifted by March, the speakers content will be presented by association executive director Jeff Crowther.

In China, all February expos and conferences have been cancelled or rescheduled as well as some events in March have already taken preemptive measures to reschedule. Most notably is Food Ingredients China Expo (FIC) originally scheduled for March 17-19, 2020 in Shanghai. The organizers and government entities have issued a statement postponing the event to an undetermined date. See English post from their website below:

There are other shows that may be effected such as Natural Health and Nutrition Expo held in Shanghai on April 8th. In June the association will host its Probiotics China Summit and Omega-3 China Summit in Shanghai. Both of which are followed by FiAsia and HNC Expo. HPA-China has not yet made a decision to cancel or reschedule its summits because things might be back to normal by June. However, public health and safety come first. The next couple of weeks should reveal if this is peaking and heading towards containment or unfortunately heading in a worse direction.

The virus hitting China during the Chinese New Year was really bad timing as there are 100s of millions of people traveling around China and to overseas destinations during the holiday most of which are making their ways through crowded airports, train stations and subways. Ideal places to spread the virus. Public restrooms in China typically do not have soap or paper towels, so keeping hands sanitized is a challenge.

B2B businesses like ingredient manufacturers are seeming to fare better than their B2C counterparts like branded finished product and retailers. Manufacturers were scheduled to be closed anyway and the government’s mandatory extension of the holiday to February 9th, will not have a huge affect on their business. HPA-China manufacturing members in China have stated they will most likely be a bit short staffed once the holiday comes to a close, but it shouldn’t impact them too much. Branded finished products and retailers are going to feel the brunt in terms of loses. With shopping malls and the streets in general emptied, retail and restaurant sector is getting hit hard. For example Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC, Apple Stores and others have closed many of their China locations in turn hurting their stock performance. (Source: HPA-China)

Below is a good article written by Rick Polito for NBJ on the Coronavirus and its effects on the industry, check it out:

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