China's traditional Chinese medicine trade is in a deep depression

In the first half of the year, against the background of weak recovery of the world economy and continuous contraction of Global trade, China's traditional Chinese medicine trade also fell into a downturn, becoming the category with the largest decline in the overall pharmaceutical export over the same period According to customs statistics, the trade volume of traditional Chinese medicine in the first half of the year was US $2.28 billion, down 6.3% year on year Among them, the export was US $1.75 billion, down 9.0% year on year; the import was US $530 million, up 4.0% year on year In the first half of the year, the export of traditional Chinese medicine products, including traditional Chinese medicine and decoction pieces, proprietary Chinese medicine, extract and health care products, all fell into a negative growth, and the export volume and export volume "double drop", which is rare in the export records of traditional Chinese Medicine products In the first half of the year, the import of traditional Chinese medicine products increased by 4.0% year-on-year to US $530 million, realizing the recovery of decline and entering the era of positive growth again In terms of varieties, the imports of extracts and health care products increased significantly year-on-year, while the imports of Chinese herbal medicines and herbal pieces and Chinese patent medicines remained sluggish, with a decline of more than double digits Statistics show that in the first half of the year, the import of extracts reached US $270 million, an increase of 24.2% year on year The main imported varieties were menthol, lemon oil and other essential oil products, as well as glycyrrhizic acid powder The import of health products reached US $82.198 million, an increase of 15.7% year on year It should be noted that the positive growth of health care products is mainly due to the leaping rise of its import price, which is up to 73.8%, while its import volume is down by 33.5%; the import of Chinese patent medicine is US $110 million, which is down 17.0% year on year The situation of Chinese patent medicine and health care products is completely opposite The main reason for the decline of Chinese patent medicine import is the rise of quantity and the fall of price Although the import volume has increased by 80.8%, it is difficult to offset the decline of price by 54.1%; the situation of Chinese herbal medicine and decoction pieces has continued to be depressed, with the import of US $75.839 million, down 21.1% year on year The main reasons are the decrease of import price of bulk varieties, such as the import price of Glycyrrhiza decreased by 29% year-on-year, the import price of pilose antler decreased by 25.6% year-on-year, as well as Taxus, ginseng, tuckahoe and other varieties In the first half of the year, the export value of Chinese herbal medicines and pieces of decoction increased by 9.6% year-on-year to US $490 million; the export value of Chinese herbal medicines and pieces of decoction decreased by 25.2% year-on-year to 70000 tons; the average export price of Chinese herbal medicines and pieces of decoction increased by 20.8% year-on-year to US $7.1/kg, which is the main feature of the export of Chinese herbal medicines and pieces of Decoction in the first half of the year It is gratifying that the decline in exports of Chinese herbal medicines and decoction pieces has narrowed, showing signs of turning back from the decline of nearly 20% in the whole year last year The top 10 varieties of Chinese medicinal materials and pieces are ginseng, wolfberry, rehmannia, dangshen, pinellia, chrysanthemum, Atractylodes macrocephala, Poria cocos, Astragalus membranaceus and Ligusticum chuanxiong Among them, only ginseng, Pinellia ternate and poria cocos export volume showed a positive growth, the others were down year on year Ginseng is a very eye-catching variety In the first half of this year, the export volume of ginseng increased by 154.8% year on year to 1162.2 tons, and the export volume increased by 69.7% year on year to US $88.312 million The main export destination of ginseng is Japan, accounting for 55.6% of the total export In addition, the export in the first half of the half summer was also concerned, with the export volume increasing by 150.4% year on year and the export volume increasing by 100.8% year on year Japan is the biggest target market of Banxia, accounting for 61.5% of the total export volume Unfortunately, among the top ten varieties, the export value of rehmannia, dangshen, chrysanthemum, Astragalus and Ligusticum chuanxiong all fell by more than double digits Asia is still the main market of Chinese herbal medicine and decoction pieces in China Hong Kong, China is the first market for the export of Chinese herbal medicines and decoction pieces In the first half of the year, the export volume of the mainland to Hong Kong was 25800 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 34.7%; the export volume was 145 million US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 21.6%; and the price rose by 20.1% Japan is the second largest market for the export of Chinese herbal medicines and decoction pieces In the first half of the year, the export to Japan was 9244.3 tons, an increase of 6.4% year on year; the export volume reached 130 million US dollars, an increase of 35.9% year on year; and the export price Rose 27.7% year on year The situation in the two markets is quite opposite The sharp growth of exports to Japan has narrowed the decline of exports of Chinese herbal medicines and pieces of decoction In addition, there are several markets worthy of attention in the first half of the year, including Taiwan, Germany, Italy and other markets that have maintained positive growth In the past 10 years, the export of extract has been growing at a high speed, but in the first half of this year, the export of extract turned from positive to negative and fell into a dilemma In the first half of the year, the export of extract reached US $1.03 billion, down 5.8% year on year; the export volume was 44000 tons, down 10.6% year on year In terms of export varieties, the top ten hot varieties are Stevia leaf extract, eucalyptus leaf oil, menthol, marigold extract, cinnamon oil, liquorice extract, blueberry extract, maltol, rutin extract and silymarin extract, with a total export volume of nearly 500 million US dollars, accounting for nearly 50% of the export of extract Among them, the export value of Stevia leaf extract single variety exceeded US $100 million, and the export value of eucalyptus leaf oil and menthol single variety exceeded US $50 million The main export markets of Stevia leaf extract are Malaysia and the United States, while the main export markets of menthol are Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia The market of eucalyptus oil and cinnamon oil is mainly concentrated in Indonesia, the United Kingdom, the United States and so on In the first half of this year, most of the essential oil products were exported to Malaysia, Thailand and other ASEAN countries, and the market demand dropped sharply Therefore, the export performance of the whole extract was reduced, which also became the main reason for the export of the extract from positive to negative The traditional markets for extract exports remain the United States and Japan In the first half of the year, the export volume of extracts from China to the United States was US $220 million, a slight increase of 2.1% year on year The main export products are Stevia leaf extract, ginkgo leaf extract, licorice extract, silymarin extract and other dietary supplement raw materials The export of extracts to Japan was US $110 million, down 6.8% year on year The main products exported to Japan are Chinese herbal extracts and nutritional supplements In recent years, ASEAN countries are another important market for the export of extracts, but in the first half of this year, our exports to ASEAN countries all declined sharply, such as 47.2%, 59.6% and 30.2% to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, respectively But at the same time, there are also some new target markets emerging, which are worthy of special attention, such as South Korea, Spain and Germany In the first half of this year, China's exports to these three countries increased by 30.2%, 28.7% and 22.9% respectively, and their exports also climbed to 50.119 million, 44.986 million and 43.881 million US dollars respectively In the past two years, the export of Chinese patent medicine has been in a state of downturn However, in the first half of this year, the situation deteriorated sharply, and the export volume decreased by 27.4% year-on-year to US $99.692 million, which is less than the export volume of single extract variety As the representative of Chinese medicine, the bleak export of Chinese patent medicine makes its internationalization full of hardships Hong Kong, China is the main export market of Chinese patent medicine In the first half of this year, the volume, price and amount of Chinese patent medicine all fell in an awkward situation, with a relatively large range of 9.0%, 43.8% and 38.2% respectively Its market share also shrank from 46.0% last year to 39.2% Among the top 10 markets of Chinese patent medicine export, only Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand maintained positive growth, while other countries and regions all declined, with the decline of more than 30% in four countries and regions In the first half of the year, the largest export of Chinese patent medicine was still Pianzihuang (600436, stock bar), with an export volume of 11.617 million US dollars, down 26.8% year on year The second largest export of Chinese patent medicine is Qingliang oil, with an export volume of US $10.823 million, down 13.1% year on year The export volume of Angong Niuhuang Pill and Yunnan Baiyao (000538, Guba) is less than US $10 million The overall situation of Chinese patent medicine export is not optimistic The main obstacle is that Chinese patent medicine is also managed by drugs abroad Its sales must be registered Different countries and regions have different registration requirements, different market access conditions, and the market entry is full of frustrations Moreover, the current mainstream medical system is western medicine It is difficult for traditional Chinese medicine to develop in some areas without understanding the culture of traditional Chinese medicine, which brings difficulties to the market development of traditional Chinese medicine However, in recent years, formula granules have shown a high growth rate In addition, in, the State Food and Drug Administration issued the measures for the administration of traditional Chinese medicine formula granules (Draft for comments) The pilot production of traditional Chinese medicine formula granules may be liberalized, and its promotion effect on the export of traditional Chinese medicine is worth looking forward to In the first half of the year, the import of health care products became a bright spot, and the export of health care products fell in volume, price and volume, with the export volume only reaching US $120 million However, its import situation is good, which is a bright spot in the trade of traditional Chinese medicine In the first half of the year, the import of health care products reached US $82.198 million, up 15.7% year on year The Australian market is very noteworthy and has become the fastest growing country In the first half of the year, I imported $4.289 million of health care products from Australia, an increase of 313.2% year on year In recent years, Chinese enterprises have increased their efforts to explore the Australian market For example, Tianshili (600535, stock bar) and Tongrentang (600085, stock bar) have successfully carried out the related business of medical and health products in Australia Not long ago, Shanghai Pharmaceutical (601607, stock bar) and Chunhua capital, a private equity fund with Chinese background, reached an acquisition framework plan for vitaco holding company, a well-known Australian listed company and manufacturer of sports and active nutrition products In addition, grassroots Zhiben, a subsidiary of new hope group, announced the acquisition of Australian natural care, a well-known health product enterprise in Australia, which mainly deals in vitamins, dietary supplements, natural daily necessities, etc at present, its own brand has 119 products, and its products are natural, pollution-free, and free of chemical residues, which have been approved by the Australian government TGA The first mock exam of the new food safety law clarifies the legal status of health food, and clarifies the management methods of the registration and filing of health food The management method of health food has increased the filing system management method on the basis of the original registration mode The products of record system cover minerals, vitamins and other nutritional elements, as well as health food that has been included in the catalogue of health food raw materials (formulated by the General Administration), which will greatly activate the existing health food market.