What's Going on With Protein Pricing?

Posted by Ben Crowley in Feature Articles

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

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What’s happening with protein pricing?

As we live in a truly global economy, any restraint or issue that impacts the movement of items around the world has huge flow-on effects.

Shipping has increased by a whopping 5x compared to 2018 pricing.

The graph below shows how stable shipping prices were for years before they went ballistic.

The shipping issues are a combination of huge demand, global lockdowns, and limited supply. Using China as an example (where most amino acids are made) entire ports have been shut down. This is set to ease somewhat but not until 2023.

The shipping issue is made even worse as companies compete to get space on ships. Not only are goods far more expensive to ship, but everything is taking far longer to move around. What used to take 6 weeks from order to delivery in a shipping container, may now take up to 26 weeks!

To combat this, companies are needing to hold more stock, and in some cases, companies are going out of stock due to the delays.

Why is Whey Protein going up more than other products?

Unfortunately, whey protein is one of the absolute worst-hit products when it comes to rises, with prices of raw Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC) and Whey Protein Isolate (WPI) more than doubling in a 12-month period.

To make matters worse, unlike baby formula (where whey protein makes up a small percentage of the product) our WPC and WPI products contain between 94% and 100% Whey Protein, so massive increases mean a huge increase in the cost of production for us.

The big issue here is that demand is higher than ever and due to a combination of Covid effects (like shutdowns) and natural events like droughts, there is far less product available. When droughts subside, farms try to restock, however, the cost of fertilizer and grain is significantly impacted by the war in Ukraine, so their input costs are much higher.

This explains why some companies are literally offering no stock whatsoever, with those who can get stock having to raise their prices significantly.

Some supplement companies are changing suppliers, however, not all appear to be communicating to their customers when supply and country of origin are changing. At Bulk Nutrients, we are big believers in transparency, whether it’s printing our regular lab tests or sharing COAs from suppliers.

If we consider the variation in WPI specs, you’ll get an idea of why this is so important. Our strict standards mean we won’t consider using a WPI when it contains any more than 1-2% carbohydrates. It’s clear that some companies are using a WPI which contains around 5% carbohydrates, yet their labels remain unchanged, so the customer has no visibility around what they are consuming.

How long will high protein pricing be around?

From what industry suppliers are saying and other information we are getting externally, we expect pricing to remain high into 2023. Our real goal through this period is to keep pricing as low as possible to take the pressure off customers, and to ensure that we maintain supply in a reliable form.

This is much harder than it appears, as we’ve experienced even greater raw price rises in the last 2 months, however, we have decided not to pass on any more pricing increases to customers.

Traditionally as a company if your demand goes up, you just ask for more product from your supplier however that is impossible now with nothing in reserve anywhere, and it is because we have strong, long-term supplier relationships that we are able to continue to consistently supply the high-quality product that meets our food safety and macronutrient requirements.

As a business, we have always been open and transparent with our customers, and when we experience any cost relief, whether through shipping costs returning to ‘normal’ or increased supply in the market increasing competition and therefore (hopefully!) reducing the cost of the raw product, we will pass that back on to our customers. We would love to be specific with dates, but as there is still so much uncertainty in the market, we can’t confidently indicate when that will be.

What alternatives do I have to WPC and WPI?

If you are particularly sensitive to pricing one solution is to switch from WPI to WPC, or consider using a blended product like Protein Matrix+.

At over 80% protein this is still exceptionally pure, and a digestive enzyme helps relieve any symptoms for people who are concerned about lactose.

Another option is to consider a plant protein like Earth Protein, or even Pea Protein or Rice Protein, as this is more cost-effective once again if you want an alternative from WPI.

While the pricing of these products has increased, the rises are far less significant than what we have seen in the dairy industry.

If you don’t want to ditch whey altogether (which is understandable) then you could consider going 1 for 1 and getting a plant protein in addition to your whey. Many people have adopted this “flexitarian” method for lifestyle reasons well before we saw any increases, where they alternate between whey and plant proteins.

If you haven’t tried plant proteins for years or have tried other alternatives and been disappointed, we are very proud of the purity, taste, and texture of our Earth protein.

I’ve seen cheap protein on eBay, can’t I buy that?

We realise that with pricing going through the roof, people look for cheaper alternatives. From what we have observed through customer lab tests, cheaper eBay protein from unfamiliar brands is often underdosed.

The pic below shows a lab report when a customer in Australia recently sent an eBay sourced WPI to the laboratory. The customer purchased this product on the basis of it being a WPI with 90% protein with carbohydrates at 5%.

In reality, their WPI contains less protein and far more carbohydrates than our WPC, and it's way below label claims of 90% protein, with carbohydrate levels 3 times that as listed!

eBay sourced WPI (with label claims of 90% protein) Lab report:


FC0002	Moisture (Vacuum Drying)	6.6	g/100 g	VIC
FC0003	Ash	2.5	g/100 g	VIC
FC0004	Protein (Kjeldahl)	68.6	g/100 g	VIC
FC0006	Carbohydrates	16.2	g/100 g	VIC
FC0007	Total Sugars	5.9	g/100 g	VIC
FC0016	Energy	1667	kJ/100 g	VIC
FC0022	Total Fat	6.1	g/100 g	VIC
FC0022	Monounsaturated Fatty Acids	1.6	g/100 g	VIC
FC0022	Polyunsatutated Fatty Acids	0.5	g/100 g	VIC
FC0022	Saturated Fatty Acid	3.7	g/100 g	VIC
FC0022	Trans Fatty Acids	0.3	g/100 g	VIC
FC0039	Sodium	200	mg/100 g	VIC

If you aren’t interested in lab testing your product, we’d suggest you look closely at the lab tests a company supplies, confirm how many have been done, and how regular are they. A single lab test 4 years old doesn’t have much value.

In contrast, Bulk Nutrients has over 300 lab tests from the last 5 years consistently published on our website, you can view the history of them here.

If you have a whey protein product you’d like to test, email us at proteintest@bulknutrients.com.au

The Bulk Nutrients commitment…

While we can’t offer magical relief on pricing, we can make the following promises which are consistent with the reputation we have earned over the last 15 years.

If you buy our proteins, you will get what is advertised. For example, if we claim it is US / Aus / NZ Whey, that will always match the product you receive. We will not supply a WPI or WPC which is well outside our specs either (i.e., higher carbohydrate levels), despite many being available in the market.
Our proteins will remain perfectly pure. Our WPI and WPC from day one till now have only ever contained the pure protein source, with minimal flavouring and sweetener. Regardless of what happens with pricing, this is exactly what you will receive. No cheap substitutes or fillers will ever be used.
We won’t skimp on service and backup. Whether it’s recommending a product, matching a product to your training, helping find a missing order or any other customer service need you have, our experienced team is here to help. Our staff are here in Australia, we don’t have any offshore call centres to reduce costs, and we invest in our staff to ensure you are talking to people with skills, experience, and knowledge in our industry.
We are committed to manufacturing our own products here in Australia. We develop, refine, mix, blend package, pick and pack all our products in our own facility here in Southern Tas.
We will not reduce our high food safety standards or cut corners in our manufacturing processes to save costs. One of our values is that we Don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are serious about producing safe, high-quality food.
We will offer pricing relief when we can, and we’ll keep communicating with customers about the global situation.

Ben Crowley

Ben Crowley, founder of Australia's top sports supplement brand, Bulk Nutrients, combines two decades of industry experience with a commitment to employee work-life balance and career growth.

A firm believer in quality, Ben founded Bulk Nutrients to provide affordable, high-quality products, even amid global challenges.

Apart from business, he enjoys family time, outdoor activities, and adrenaline-charged car projects.

More about Ben Crowley