Herbal market will hit $ 5 trillion - Asoka Hettigoda
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Customers view some of the products. Pic by Chinthaka
Kumarasinghe
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Ayurveda 2007, the premier Indigenous National Healthcare Exhibition
organised by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) for
the first time in Sri Lanka in association with the Ministry of
Indigenous Medicine, Board of Investment of Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka
Export Development Board will conclude today at the Sri Lanka Exhibition
and Convention Centre.
NCCSL President D. Eassuwaren said that we in the east can proudly
boast of Ayurveda medicine which not only heals the body but also the
mind as well as the soul. Ayurveda practitioners are very approachable
and the medicines can be found easily while some of the herbs are the
base for western medicines as well.
Ayurveda is nature's gift for better health and it is a US$20bln
market but Sri Lanka does not even command 1% of this growing market
said the chairman of the organising committee Ayurveda 2007 Asoka
Hettigoda.
He said that the herbal market will go up to US$ 5 trillion. The west
is moving towards traditional ways of healing and ayurveda fulfills it.
Therefore the potential is enormous.
Even the services market in ayurveda is growing. Every hotel in the
Maldives has a spa for the comfort of their guests and even hotels in
the west have spas.
Yoga and organic food are other attractions that have immense
potential and therefore we have everything in place - it is just that we
have to attract the right mix of people to the country, said Hettigoda.
Delegates from India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Malaysia and Japan attended
the exhibition. There were 75 stalls displaying a variety of ayurvedic
medicines, herbal food, drinks and herbal cures.
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