Approximately 80-90% of the supplements sold in India are imported from developed countries, like US and Europe. There is 70% customs duty on these products, which means that for a legitimate product, the retail price would be almost twice that of the retail price in developed countries.
Heavy customs duty attracts large amounts of parallel or unethical imports. Given that these products have been illegally imported into the country, sourcing information is not available and quality becomes a question. Because of the supplements being highly priced and customers' inability to differentiate a legitimate product from a regular powder, several opportunistic resellers create and sell fake products in the market. Fake products look very similar to their original counterparts and are typically mixed with parallel-imported supplements.
It means that if you are buying a non-authorised product, you may be lucky and get an authentic product, but 1 out of 5 people will likely get a fake product, which may contain banned substances, such as steroids, and get you on a risk of causing permanent damage to your body.
At HealthKart, we strive to provide 100% authentic products to our customers and we achieve this goal by maintaining:
