Market Views · No. 01 — Food supplements market · Algeria
Food supplements have settled into the Algerian pharmacy without settling into a routine. Trust is won; regularity is not. That is where the category’s growth sits.
83% of consumers judge food supplements “useful”, and stated trust reaches 3.90 out of 5. But 59% take them only as specific needs arise. Just 22% take them year-round, and 19% in seasonal courses. The category has won people over; it has still to win a place in their calendar.
86% of consumers name vitamins and 43% minerals and trace elements — and no other family exceeds 7%. Yet 83% of pharmacies place minerals among their three best sellers. Part of the demand is therefore not formed before the visit: it is formed at the counter.
Consumers: families they say they know (n = 1,200). Pharmacies: families named among their three best sellers (n = 170).
| Named by consumers | Top 3 pharmacy sellers | |
|---|---|---|
| Vitamins | 86% | 96% |
| Minerals & trace elements | 43% | 83% |
| Essential fatty acids | 7% | 38% |
80% of consumers name the pharmacy as their usual place of purchase, 13% the parapharmacy, 2% the internet. The category nonetheless accounts for only 21% of pharmacies’ stated annual revenue — a market that 81% of them still judge promising or very promising, and that 68% describe as very dynamic or fast-growing. The room to grow is identified by the very people who hold the channel.
Asked about their choice criteria, consumers score “natural and risk-free” and “good for health” highest, tied at 4.36 out of 5; 86% consider naturalness important. Seen from the counter the ranking reverses: pharmacies believe what weighs with their customers is efficacy first (87%) and price (74%), with naturalness reaching only 53%. The gap between those two readings is a messaging space nobody occupies.
Origin each criterion corresponds to most, according to pharmacies (n = 170). The balance corresponds to “neither”.
| Criterion | Local products | Imported products |
|---|---|---|
| Price affordability | 78% | 11% |
| Product availability | 78% | 15% |
| Product innovation | 33% | 48% |
| Customer loyalty | 31% | 51% |
| Product quality | 26% | 63% |
| Product efficacy | 26% | 61% |
| Customer perception | 25% | 60% |
The results presented here are aggregated at category level. No brand-specific data and no competitive ranking is published in this document. The full study — including the brand, psychological-price and segmentation sections — is available from the institute.
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