“BIO-Search is the rallying point of the health and wellness revolution,” the Executive Director of the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), Assistant Secretary Fe Agoncillo–Reyes, said. “It is where experts, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts exchange information about new trends, technologies and discoveries in the industry. Health and wellness beginshere.”

Health and wellness havens

Health and wellness is a booming industry. Now, more than ever, people are becoming aware of the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. In the Philippines, an influx of information has led to the proliferation of physical fitness clubs, health spas and beauty salons. Such health and wellness havens have been popping out in every corner of the urban jungle and even in the rural wilds where feeling good is fast catching up with looking good.

Elaborate and trendy lifestyles have reached Philippine shores.

Japan’s LOHAS—or lifestyles of health and sustainability—and the worldwide Metrosexual phenomenon have caught the Filipinos’ aesthetic aspirations. Fads like special diets (South Beach and Atkins) and exercises (yoga, bellydancing and taebo) have been integrated into pop culture.

Bottomline: Filipinos want to have that healthy glow.

The personal care industry

Health and wellness is a 125-billion-dollar industry—and that’s just in Europe and in the United States combined. The market is expected to grow with remarkable rates: 34% in Europe, 30% in the US and 18% in Japan.

These days, it is not enough that people are using personal care products. It has come full circle to where people in search of that healthy glow are rediscovering the fruits of nature—as the much-safer organic products level up with their inorganic counterparts.

The health and wellness revolution is now.

BIO-Search: past and present

As a response to the growing health and wellness industry, CITEM launched BIO-Search in 1997. It served as Asia’s venue for the movers of the health and wellness revolution, showcasing natural, herbal and organic products.

Experts from all over the globe—Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, United States and Vietnam—participated as exhibitors on just its first year.

In BIO-Search 2002, the Herbal Development Licensing Program (HDLP) introduced 31 plant-based formulations that are now used in the fields of pharmaceutics and cosmetics.

This year, BIO-Search sets its sights on the personal care industry as it ventures into its second decade determined to grow together with its partner exhibitors and buyers.

Exhibitors, products and the global market

The past half-century had offered fast relief but with great risks with the use of inorganic products—an anomaly the health and wellness revolution seeks to correct.

The global market is looking for the alternative—natural, herbal, organic. Unfortunately, some places just do not have enough of everything. The US, Europe and Japan may have the most conducive living environments with their temperate climates, but the tropics hold the key to health and wellness with its abundance of natural, herbal and organic indigenous ingredients growing in their backyard. This makes the Philippines a sure-fit to become one of the chief sources of these natural wonders.

Once again, the Philippines is determined to turn green into gold. Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is one natural wonder the country can offer the global market as we enjoy a technological edge over neighboring countries Malaysia and Indonesia.

Natural indigenous ingredients like tawas, lauat, calamansi, gugo and even cashews are already being harnessed to produce personal care products by Filipino experts.

Soon, the Philippines may be the health and wellness capital of the world, and BIO-Search, the Personal Care Fair in Asia.