India’s centuries-old ayurveda tradition is poised to emerge as its global calling card as the country positions itself as a hub for herbal wellness and pharma grade exports.
Demand for ayurvedic and herbal products, including beauty care and nutraceuticals, is witnessing a sharp traction in international markets, offering India a chance to brand itself globally on the lines of Korea’s K-beauty or Japan’s J-beauty.
“Much such as K-beauty and J-beauty, India has the potential to champion A-beauty, blending ayurvedic tradition with pharma-grade efficacy to create globally relevant, high-performance offerings,” a Deloitte-FICCI report released on Tuesday said.
Over 50 per cent of the consumers are willing to pay a premium for products such as herbal tonics and chyawanprash.
India’s ayurveda product market is projected to reach $16.27 billion in FY28 from $7 billion in FY24, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 per cent.
BLURRING LINES
Fitness and lifestyle shifts also influence home and personal care preferences, with lines between wellness and old-school fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) blurring.
For instance, fitness enthusiasts buy speciality sun-screen or sweat-proof deodorant, while yoga/ayurveda aficionados gravitate to herbal oils for massage.
Mental wellness trends have even produced calming home fragrance diffusers and aroma therapy’ soaps.
CHEMICAL-FREE
“Indian consumers increasingly tie home and personal care purchases to overall health, seeking products free of harsh chemicals, promoting immunity or enhancing hygiene. This blurs the lines between FMCG and well-ness industries and suggests collaborative opportunities,” it noted.
The report noted that India’s FMCG exports had climbed to 45,004 crore in 2025 from 125,414 crore in 2021, clocking a 15 per cent CAGR.
EXPORT SURGE
Within this, beauty and personal care (BPC) exports surged to 22,862 crore in 2025 (14,200 crore), fuelled largely by ayurvedic and herbal personal care products.
Ingredients such as turmeric, ashwagandha, moringa, amla and millets are finding growing traction in the US, Europe and West Asia, driven by a global pivot towards clean label,
functional foods and traditional wellness. Pharmaceuticals continue to anchor India’s global trade footprint. While generics remain the core, the report highlights that Indian companies are moving deeper into specialty drugs, biosimilars and well-ness-linked formulations.
Policy support, through export-linked rebates such as RODTEP and infrastruc-ture schemes like mega food parks and PM MITRA, is re-inforcing this globalisation push, it noted.
FRESH WAVE
Back home, the urban afflu-ent class is steering a fresh wave of consumption. The report underlines that just five cities, mainly Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad, ac-count for nearly 20 per cent of India’s GDP, with around 10 million affluent house-holds driving 80 per cent of discretionary FMCG spend ing. This cohort is spending more on premium, health-oriented and personalised products, creating oppor-tunities for companies to blend ayurveda and modern science into branded offer-ings. The next phase of growth will, therefore, hinge on winning Bharat with ac-cess and value, while simul taneously unlocking the po-tential of the urban affluents through premiumisation and direct engagement, it noted.
There has been a steady recovery in India’s FMCG demand.
Value growth, which had slipped to 3.3 per cent in mid-2024, rebounded to 11 per cent in Q1 2025, while volumes grew 5.1 per cent. The trend reflects both rural sachet-driven demand and premiumisation in urban markets, with wellness and beauty categories outperforming the average.
At the same time, digital commerce is amplifying the shift. Direct-to-consumer brands and quick commerce platforms are helping ayurveda based products reach younger buyers, while urban consumers are increasingly choosing clean labels over mass-market offerings.
ADOPTING TRENDS
“Smaller players and new-age D2C brands are ahead in adopting these trends, scaling rapidly through ecommerce and quick commerce. They are reshaping competition by responding faster to evolving consumer preferences, especially among younger cohorts,” the re-ports mentioned.
According to Lalit Agarwal, MD, V-Mart Retail, the next decade will redefine commerce through the rise of value-conscious digital consumers, the acceleration of ‘phygital’ convergence and the adoption of intelligent technologies such as GenAI.
“The emergence of Gen Z as a dominant consumer group is also accelerating change. This cohort demands authenticity, instant gratification and hyper personalised engagement across platforms and price-points,” he said. For instance, the key consumer cohort for online fashion retailing is Gen Z, who are alone projected to account for 20-25 per cent of the spend.
