Ayurvedic consumer products have made in-roads into Indian households like never before. Here are the stats

Indian consumers have started preferring more ayurvedic products, and this change in preferences can be attributed to Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali.

Ramdev’s push for Ayurveda products has given momentum to the entire segment as ayurvedic products now reach 77% of Indian homes, up from 69% two years ago.

As per data from Kantar Worldpanel, the consumer insights arm of WPP, in the quarter ended March, ayurvedic products grew 60% in volume from the year earlier while the overall FMCG segment grew 6%.

Ayurvedic brands had significantly higher addition of 23 million during the same period and increased penetration to 183 million households.

After threat from Patanjali, several other FMCG companies such as HUL, Colgate and Nestle also entered the Ayurveda space.

"Companies that lacked ayurvedic or natural offerings within their portfolio have now joined the bandwagon as they have realised that the opportunity is huge and consumers are moving in that direction,” said Devendra Chawla, group president, FMCG and brands, Future Group told ET, adding “also, they are tweaking their existing products to include herbal variants, which in turn has grown the overall market,”

For instance, HUL launched Lever Ayush brand and recently brought Citra, an organic skin care brand from Indonesia.

KK Chutani, executive director for consumer care business at Dabur India, told ET the firm has launched a "future-ready, strategy to make ayurveda "more contemporary, and promote it among the new generation.