Strict export regulations and regional COVID-related limitations are slowing China-originating supply chains for two top sports nutrition energy ingredients, caffeine and creatine. Outside of China, suppliers and manufacturers are clamoring to beef up inventories of these increasingly hard-to-find materials but face steeply rising prices for whatever supply they can secure.
Longtime sports nutrition formulator Bruce Kneller, whose import-export company Hong Kong Life Sciences deals with such ingredients, reported lead time for caffeine is indefinite. “Our suppliers have increased price by 100% due to tight supply.”
Similarly, the price of creatine has risen from its consistent $4 per kilo to between $10 and $14/kg.