Fish oil imports increased 60.07% in value to US$384m and accounted for 9.97% of all dietary supplements that China imported in the first half of 2026.
The increase in fish oil imports was mostly driven by growth in Peruvian imports, said the report titled “Analysis of Dietary Supplements Imports and Exports in the First Half of 2026.”
Peruvian imports, for example, jumped 182.8% in value to US$175m and the country is now the seventh-largest dietary supplement exporter to China.
“The most striking change came from Peru, where the value of imports surged from US$62m in the first half of 2025 to US$175m — a year-on-year increase of 182.80%,” the report wrote. “Its share of exports into China also jumped from 1.6% to 4.54%, propelling it into one of the top 10 dietary supplement exporters to China; this signals an accelerating expansion of procurement channels for raw materials, such as deep-sea fish oil, into Latin America.”
Fish oil is also one of the most popular dietary supplement categories on China’s retail channels.
On e-commerce platforms, fish oil product sales were up 44.91% yoy. Fish oil supplement sales also accounted for 6.15% of all supplement sales.
Still, multivitamins were the most purchased supplements, consisting 11.62% of all supplement sales. Calcium and probiotics were the other commonly purchased supplements.
Traditionally popular brands like Australia’s Swisse and China’s BYHEALTH remained the top two bestselling brands online, with Czech brand Nutrend ranked third and Italian brand Omegor becoming a crowd favorite due to its fish oil product line.
| Supplement category | Year-on-year change in online sales |
|---|---|
| Fish oil | + 44.91% |
| Food for Special Medical Purposes | + 35.03% |
| Sports nutrition | + 31.99% |
| Multivitamins | + 23.91% |
| Probiotics | + 9.02% |
| Calcium | + 7.10% |
| Beauty-from-within | - 6.81% |
| Weight management | - 23.45% |
More diversified imports
The US, Germany and Australia remained the three largest dietary supplements exporters to China in the first half of 2026. However, the report also noted that China’s dietary supplement imports were increasingly coming from diverse sources.
This can be seen from the decline in China’s imports of American and German supplements, which were down 16.31% and 19.18% in value, respectively.
Last year, US supplement imports accounted for 20.65%, but it declined to 17.81% this year, while that of Germany fell from 16.80% to 13.99%.
“Declines in imports from both the U.S. and Germany have led to a notable contraction in the combined share of these top two sources, reinforcing a trend toward import diversification,” said the report.
In contrast to last year’s decline, China’s imports of Australian dietary supplements rebounded, with import value up 10.14% to US$432m.
Overall, China’s dietary supplement imports from the 27 EU member states totaled US$942 million, which was down 15.40% yoy.
Notably, while exporters such as Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy saw a decline in exports to China, Spain and Denmark bucked the trend with growth.
Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, China’s imports from the 10 ASEAN member states reached US$540 million, up 25.63% yoy, driven primarily by Thailand and Malaysia.
“ASEAN’s role as a source of dietary supplement imports continues to grow in importance,” said the report.
