South Africa: Sustainability key but NPD ‘on the backburner’
Charmaine Du Preez, president of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists South Africa (Coschem) and product manager at Chemsystems AECI, said sustainability was certainly “fundamental” for most beauty businesses.
“We have seen an increase in the demand for sustainable products. Customers are exploring all options and making lots of effort to incorporate sustainability,” Preez said.
There had been growth, for example, in waterless, recyclable and degradable beauty formats, and natural had now become “increasingly necessary” for all sustainable formulations, she said.
However, South Africa’s beauty market continued to face widespread supply chain difficulties, rising raw material costs, import issues and surging unemployment rates due to COVID-19, placing many new product development projects “on the backburner”, she said.