China and ASEAN trade in Chinese herbal medicines grows

In the first half of the year, China’s trade volume with ASEAN countries was US$267 million, an increase of 48.57% year-on-year. Among them, China’s exports to the ASEAN countries amounted to US$211 million, an increase of 41.46% year-on-year; China’s imports from ASEAN countries amounted to US$56.129 million, up year-on-year. An increase of 83.24%. It can be seen that China-ASEAN trade in Chinese medicine is embarking on the track of rapid development.

Some Chinese provinces, cities, districts and ASEAN countries have a unique geographic advantage in developing Chinese medicine trade. In ASEAN countries, Chinese people are concentrated and their drug habits are similar. The population of the ASEAN region is nearly 700 million. In recent years, with the increase in population and economic growth in the region, local people have become increasingly aware of health care, and the demand for traditional medicine is increasing. ASEAN Region Most of them are developing countries. The pharmaceutical industry has a relatively weak foundation and has a high degree of dependence on the import of drugs. These are favorable conditions for Chinese enterprises to develop ASEAN's traditional medicine market.

Chinese herbal medicines, decoction pieces and extracts are eye-catching

Chinese herbal medicines, decoction pieces, and extracts have consistently accounted for more than 80% of China's total exports of ASEAN's Chinese medicines. In recent years, China’s exports of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs to ASEAN have remained stable. The average export price has increased by about 11% year-on-year. The main export commodities are chrysanthemum, ginseng, dangshen, astragalus, atractylodes, chuanxiong, alfalfa and angelica.

In the first half of this year, China’s exports to ASEAN’s Chinese herbal medicines and decoction pieces have increased significantly. Only a small amount of commodity exports have declined. The main reason for the decline in exports was the Chinese angelica. The reason was that the 6.6-magnitude earthquake hit Gansu County, the main producing area of ​​Gansu Province. The price of Zigui rose by 20% to 25% in the days after the earthquake and drove the export price to rise sharply. From January to June this year. China's ASEAN exports to the ASEAN was 167,271 kg, down 48.87% year-on-year; export prices were US$11.38/kg, up 70.9% year-on-year; exports were US$1.9032 million, down 12.62% year-on-year.

Eucalyptus oil is China's largest exporter of ASEAN products. After years of development, China's capacity in eucalyptus oil production technology, quality, and output has been greatly enhanced, and it has now become one of the world's largest producers and exporters of eucalyptus oil. The production areas of eucalyptus oil in China are mainly concentrated in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Chongqing, and they are represented by Yunnan western Yunnan. The Yunnan Minxi region is the main producing area of ​​eucalyptus oil, and it has a unique production environment. The quality of locally produced eucalyptus oil is superior, and its output ranks first in the country. Eucalyptus oil is divided into edible essences, industrial oils, and medical oils according to quality standards. Blue peony oil is used in medicine. Blue eucalyptus oil has antibacterial effects, especially for upper respiratory tract infections and chronic bronchitis. Since 2006, the export price of Chinese eucalyptus oil has continued to rise. In 2012, the export prices of Chinese eucalyptus oil fell sharply. This was mainly due to the rapid increase in prices in previous years. In the first half of this year, with the further stabilization of demand, the decline in the export prices of Chinese eucalyptus oil has narrowed substantially.

Ginseng is the second largest product exported by China to ASEAN. In the first half of this year, China's exports to ASEAN ginseng amounted to 156,984 kg, an increase of 126.98% year-on-year; export prices were US$78.98/kg, an increase of 31.06% year-on-year. China's main destinations for ASEAN ginseng exports are Malaysia and Singapore. In recent years, the price of ginseng has bottomed out. In particular, after the implementation of the “Ginseng Management New Measures” in Jilin Province, ginseng can be directly used as a raw material for food and beverages to join various foods, which opens up broad space for the development of ginseng-based health foods in China. Ginseng export prices have therefore steadily increased. However, the continuous increase in the price of ginseng is too large and the market should be cautious.

Chrysanthemum is the third largest product exported by China to ASEAN. In the first half of this year, China’s exports to ASEAN Chrysanthemum were relatively stable. The export price was US$7.37/kg, up 29.34% year-on-year. The destination countries of exports were Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, and the main export provinces were Zhejiang, Guangxi and Anhui.

Zhongning County in Ningxia is a place of origin in Pangyang. In recent years, Zhongning County has taken the development of the plutonium industry as a major measure to promote agricultural efficiency and increase farmers' income. It has built bases, expanded the scale, grasped quality, branded trees, lived circulation, raised efficiency, developed processing, promoted transformation, and steadily expanded its planting scale. , The marketing network has been continuously improved, the deep processing has developed rapidly, the industrial chain has been continuously extended, and the comprehensive benefits have become increasingly apparent. At the end of 2012, the planting area of ​​the county reached 200,000 mu, the total output of the dried fruit was 48,000 tons, and the total output value of the wolfberry industry was 2.5 billion yuan. The brand value of the Zhongning wolfberry rose to 3.27 billion yuan. However, due to the lack of uniform export standards and the lack of deep processing of high value-added products, China's export volume to ASEAN increased by 271.55% year-on-year in the first half of this year, but export prices dropped by 20.06% year-on-year.

Imports of bird's nests show renewed growth

China's bird's nest imports mainly come from ASEAN's Malaysia and Indonesia. In the past, the price of bird's nest in the domestic market was higher than the price of bird's nest in the Southeast Asian countries, and there was a large profit margin. In 2011 alone, China imported 7,365 kilograms of bird's nest from ASEAN. On August 16 of that year, a sample inspection by the Zhejiang Industrial and Commercial Bureau found that more than 30,000 larvae of blood had exceeded the nitrite levels, exceeding the standard by 350 times, and the defective rate of blood swallows was up to 100%. Later, as the effect of the incident continued to expand, Many domestic bird's nest stores have been greatly affected. In 2012, China's bird's nest imports were only 5 kilograms, a decrease of 99.93% year-on-year. In response to the crisis, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China signed contracts with Indonesia and Malaysia in April and September of the same year. The Bird's Nest Inspection and Quarantine and Sanitary Conditions Protocol, which stipulates stringent standards and detailed rules for the quality of bird's nest exports to China, urges the relevant authorities of the Indonesian and Malaysian governments to include the collection, processing and export of bird's nest into the legalized supervision system. This ensures that the Indonesian and Malaysian bird's nests and their products that enter the Chinese market through legal declarations and the entry and exit of animal and plant inspection and quarantine processes are in full compliance with China's requirements for food safety laws and regulations, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of China's bird's nest consumers from the legal level. In the first half of this year, China’s bird's nest imports have returned to 711 kg, and the import price has been US$2,076.94/kg, showing a recovery trend.

Vietnam and Malaysia are the top two export markets

In the first half of this year, China’s exports of traditional Chinese medicine to Vietnam and Malaysia accounted for 57% of the total export volume of traditional Chinese medicines in the ASEAN market. China’s exports of traditional Chinese medicines to ASEAN’s major countries all showed an upward trend. Only exports to Singapore declined slightly year-on-year.

Vietnam is the country's largest destination country for ASEAN's exports of traditional Chinese medicines. China's exports to Vietnam are mainly Chinese herbal medicines and decoction pieces such as Chuanxiong, Atractylodes, rhubarb, yellow, yellow and chrysanthemum. In addition, China also exports a certain amount of lecithin (health supplements) and inositol (extracts) to Vietnam. In the first half of this year, China's exports to Vietnam grew faster than those of Chuan Ye and Atractylodes, while exports of another traditional commodity chrysanthemum decreased.

China's export of Malaysian Chinese medicine is mainly based on extracts. In addition, a certain number of Chinese-style medicines and medicinal herbs are also exported. The main medicinal herbs for export are chrysanthemum, Chinese wolfberry, ginseng and Codonopsis. In the first half of this year, China's exports of all kinds of Malaysian medicines to China had a large increase, with an increase of 139%.

Private enterprises' export volume increased 60% year-on-year

The major provinces that China exports to ASEAN Chinese medicine products are Guangxi, Sichuan, Fujian, Yunnan, and Jiangxi. Among them, the export growth is faster in Jiangxi, and the decline in exports is in Guangdong. In the first half of this year, a total of 603 enterprises in China had exported Chinese medicine commodities to ASEAN business. Among exporters, state-owned enterprises have been the main body of ASEAN's traditional Chinese medicine exports in the past. In 2011, the value of state-owned enterprises’ exports accounted for as high as 50%. However, in the first half of this year, the amount of state-owned enterprises’ exports to ASEAN countries was 69.532 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of only 21.82. %, below the average of 41.46%. The private enterprise's export value was 98,268,800 US dollars, an increase of 60.25% compared with the same period of last year. Private enterprises have become the main force for China's exports of traditional Chinese medicine to ASEAN countries.

Develop the ASEAN market right time <br> <br> Although China - ASEAN Free Trade overall good momentum of development trade area, but if you want real traditional Chinese medicine companies to enter these markets are still some problems. For example, ASEAN countries all set access standards for medicines and did not form a unified mechanism for mutual recognition. Some ASEAN countries have unstable political systems, lack of intellectual property protection systems, and inadequate government supervision; some companies have insufficient understanding of the ASEAN market, and they are not satisfied with the free trade area. The utilization rate of policies is not high; the scale of enterprise investment in the ASEAN market is small, and the development method is relatively simple; China's pharmaceutical products are still difficult to enter the mainstream channels such as local government procurement and public hospitals.

In response to the above problems, China's foreign trade industry for TCM should strengthen its research on the international market, strengthen its research and development capabilities, seek for differentiated operations, strengthen the communication and consultation with government authorities, and coordinate and communicate with the industry to effectively expand and expand the development space.

In fact, as the level of economic development has increased, the cost of land, labor, and raw materials in China has continued to rise, gradually surpassing ASEAN countries. Enterprises can make full use of the rich resources of ASEAN countries and solve many difficulties in domestic economic development. With the continuous implementation of the China-ASEAN FTA policy, more companies will enjoy the benefits it brings, and exploring the ASEAN market will be the right choice for Chinese companies.