China Online Protein Powder Sales Up 27% as More Units Sold

Online protein powder sales across three of China's largest marketplaces were about CN¥ 7.7 billion in the year to August 2026 and rose 27% like for like, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. More units sold while the average price held steady, and of the fourteen categories linked to weight management that we measured, protein powder is the only one that grew on all three marketplaces.

This article covers the second chapter of the full report, China Weight Management Industry Report 2023–2026, which measures fourteen product categories linked to weight management, from meal replacement to bathroom scales, and asks which of them grew after China launched its national weight-management campaign in June 2024.

Key figures

• CN¥ 7.7 billion: online protein powder sales, September 2025 to August 2026
• +27%: protein powder's like-for-like growth on the year before
• +26%: growth in protein powder units sold, while the average price per unit showed no clear trend
• 3: categories that sold more than CN¥ 5 billion online: meal replacement, protein powder and oral collagen

Method and scope: observed online sales across three of China's largest marketplaces, September 2023 to August 2026, from Moojing Market Intelligence; not the total market, because physical stores, pharmacies and several other marketplaces are not included. Growth rates are like for like, comparing only months in which a marketplace's categories did not change. Products such as protein powder are measured by title (蛋白粉).

Which weight-management categories are largest in China?#

Meal replacement (CN¥ 8.9 billion), protein powder (CN¥ 7.7 billion) and oral collagen (CN¥ 5.9 billion) were the largest of the fourteen categories we measured online in the year to August 2026, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. The marketplaces' own weight-management categories, which the report calls the weight-management shelf, came fourth, at CN¥ 3.3 billion.

Exhibit 3. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three online marketplaces, sales in the year to August 2026 and like-for-like growth against a year earlier. Products measured by title are summed across broad health-food, food, snack and fresh categories. Categories marked "2 marketplaces" could not be followed on the third. A light bar marks a product whose sales moved in different directions on different marketplaces. Leaving out the 2026 months before one marketplace's category change, the weight-management shelf's change is 0%, meal replacement's −3% and light meals' +3%, so we draw no conclusion from the shelf's +19%. Not the total market.

Registered weight-loss health foods, which carry a blue-hat logo, sold about CN¥ 280 million on the two marketplaces that list them separately. Of the fourteen categories, only two moved the same way on every marketplace that sells them: protein powder rose, and protein bars fell 42%. Meal replacement, oral collagen, chicken breast, scales and the sugar-free, zero-sugar, low-calorie and oat foods showed no clear trend, and the rest rose on some marketplaces and fell on others, so we draw no conclusion from their combined figures.

Why did protein powder sales grow in China?#

Protein powder grew because more of it sold, with units up 26% like for like in the year to August 2026, while the average price per unit rose 1%, which is no clear trend, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. It rose on all three marketplaces, after a year in which it rose on only one.

Exhibit 4. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three online marketplaces, sales by month, September 2023 to August 2026. In the shaded months one marketplace had moved to new categories that hold more products, so the lighter bars are not comparable with earlier months, which is why growth rates are like for like. Protein powder's June 2026 peak appears even with that marketplace left out. The dashed line marks the launch of Weight Management Year in June 2024. Meal replacement also omits one marketplace's food categories from July 2024, which lowers its bars from then by up to about a tenth, and the weight-management shelf loses one marketplace's slimming category from May 2026. Not the total market.

Our data cannot show why protein grew. The dairy industry has moved towards it: in July 2026 China Daily reported that Yili and Mengniu, two leading dairy groups, had launched protein water in May, with about 9 to 10 grams of protein a serving. The article, which drew partly on our data, linked a sharp rise in whey prices to "growing global demand for high-protein diets", the "expanding use of protein products among consumers taking weight-loss medications" and "limited near-term supply growth".

Fast food has followed. KFC's light-meal format KPRO passed 300 stores in May 2026 and announced high-protein sandwiches and yoghurt smoothies. Our earlier article on high-protein snacks measured a different set, snacks sold on their protein content in the first half of 2026, so its growth figure and the fall in protein bars here describe different products and periods. Protein also runs through the wider functional food and beverage market.

What does protein powder's growth mean for brands?#

The report's first recommendation is that brands sell protein as everyday nutrition, described by grams per serving and not by any effect on weight, with new products focused on powders while drinks and meals are tested. Our data measure protein powder and bars, not newer formats such as protein water.

Whey, which sells mostly in the same listings as protein powder, rose 20% in health foods, and we look at which ingredients lost sales in our article on the "weight loss" claim and slimming ingredients. The campaign behind the chapter is covered in China's Weight Management Year, and all four recommendations in four moves for brands. The monthly series, the category changes and the significance tests are in the full report.