Competing for international discourse power to enhance the competitiveness of China's plant industry

In 2009, China's foreign trade export suffered heavy losses In the first half of this year, the export volume was US $521.5 billion, down 25.4% year on year, the biggest decline in China's foreign trade export in the past 10 years The relatively rigid pharmaceutical industry has also been impacted However, it is enough to cheer the industry up that plant extracts (hereinafter referred to as "plant extracts") which used to be a small branch of export of traditional Chinese medicine have soared against the market in the past, with the export volume of 414 million US dollars and the year-on-year growth of 18.41%, illuminating the dark night of China's pharmaceutical export However, in the case of a good export situation, we must also clearly see the shortcomings of China's plant extract industry: China's plant extract products do not have their own brands and patents, lack of key technologies and market advantages, plant extract production enterprises lack of international market competitiveness, can not reasonably and effectively use the rich local plant resources and so on For this reason, in the "forum on improving the international competitiveness of China's plant extraction industry" jointly sponsored by China Chamber of Commerce for the import and export of pharmaceutical and health care products (hereinafter referred to as "Chamber of Commerce for medical insurance") and plant extraction industry information network in Beijing recently, participants from dozens of plant extraction enterprises across the country expressed great concern on how to improve the international competitiveness of China's plant extraction industry On the forum of outstanding performance in India and Malaysia, Liu Zhanglin, vice chairman of the chamber of Commerce of medical insurance, introduced the foreign trade situation of China's plant extract industry and the current situation of export target market since this year Liu Zhanglin analyzed that China's plant extracts have been exported to 94 countries and regions, and to six continents, of which exports to Asia have accounted for half of China's plant extracts exports, and exports to Japan continue to exceed exports to the United States There is a strong demand for Chinese plant extracts in the Japanese market Since February this year, exports to Japan have shown a good momentum of continuous increase April is the largest month of exports in the first half of this year The countries with the most outstanding export market performance are India and Malaysia, with a year-on-year growth of more than 100% Similar to last year's outstanding Mexican market, the Indian and Malaysian markets are driven by the sharp rise of single commodity exports Most of the plant extracts exported to India are natural pigments and spices; more than 90% of the plant extracts exported to Malaysia are stevia, which are widely used in the field of food However, the impact of policies issued by foreign governments on the export of plant extracts in China is worthy of attention At present, the United States began to implement the GMP system for healthy food and the reporting system for harmful phenomena (AER) Europe has launched a health emphasis system for healthy food, and put it into action to unify the EU's description of healthy food In addition, because of the doubt about the safety of raw materials imported from China, as a measure, countries have signed agreements between the two countries and many countries to ensure the safety of food trade, and strengthened close international cooperation From the perspective of the whole industry, Liu Zhanglin believes that China's plant extract industry will continue to maintain a high growth rate in the future In the future, the application scope of plant extracts will be more extensive, and the market space will be further expanded However, the industrial agglomeration degree of our country will be gradually improved and the competitiveness will be enhanced Great changes have taken place in the structure of export enterprises: in 2000, the total export volume of the top 10 enterprises of plant extracts in China was only 37.29 million US dollars; from January to July 2009, the total export volume of the top 10 enterprises reached 198 million US dollars, accounting for 31.42% of the total export volume of plant extracts in China In 2009, 8 of the top 10 export enterprises were manufacturing enterprises, and the top 5 were all manufacturing enterprises; in 2000, only 2 of the top 10 were manufacturing enterprises, and the top 5 were all foreign trade enterprises In terms of product R & D, the R & D capacity of plant extract enterprises in China has been continuously improved Xi'an Haotian, Beijing Green Jinke, Guangzhou Hanfang, Tianjin Jianfeng and other enterprises have their own R & D teams, which can ensure the continuous launch of new products and have core competitiveness The state also attaches great importance to the industrial standards The national standards of 10 plant extracts have been included in the Pharmacopoeia of 2005 version, and the standards of plant extracts in Pharmacopoeia of 2010 version have also been greatly increased Recently, the Ministry of Commerce has issued 7 Foreign Trade and economic standards for plant extracts, and the medical insurance chamber of Commerce has also formulated 13 kinds of test methods and standards "In the future, the state will continue to support the export of extracts, and the relevant policies for the development of traditional Chinese medicine will continue to support the export of plant extracts China Medical Insurance chamber of Commerce will also make every effort to expand international market services for enterprises " Liu Zhanglin said However, "at this stage, we must see that there are many plant extract enterprises in China, with an initial estimate of more than 800 enterprises, but few influential enterprises in the international market In 2008, there were 1001 export enterprises of plant extracts in China, only 7 enterprises with export value of more than ten million US dollars, and only 93 enterprises with export value of more than one million US dollars " Liu warned Competing for the international discourse power and envisaging the establishment of industrial alliance if Liu Zhanglin's report attracted the high attention of the participants, then Li Chunhua, general manager of Beijing Green Jinke Biotechnology Co., Ltd., "the standards and quality of high-quality suppliers of plant extracts and the assumption of establishing industrial alliance" raised a warm response to the meeting At the meeting, Li Chunhua first proposed the concept of "the market needs high-quality suppliers" Li Chunhua believes that it is very important for China's plant extracts to have a long-term dominant position in the international market and to build the image of high-quality suppliers In detail, the image of high-quality suppliers is marked by: first, the enterprise can produce and provide products according to the processes and product standards stipulated by the laws and regulations of the user country; second, it has a perfect production and quality management system and can pass various certifications stipulated by international standards; third, all products provided must be products independently produced under full quality control It is not obtained through simple trade means; fourth, it can accurately execute the commercial contracts signed with customers; fifth, it can provide products with stable quality for a long time In particular, he mentioned that the products of high-quality suppliers must be self-produced rather than trade, and the products should be specialized rather than extensive Due to the wide demand of the brand manufacturers of the end products, some production suppliers try to meet the needs of these downstream customers in an all-round way However, the similarity and repeatability of the catalog often make the end users unable to distinguish which products are produced by the suppliers themselves and which are purchased, which makes the end users very confused Although the top 20 plant extract manufacturers in China export more than 60% of the total plant extract exports, it is difficult for Chinese plant extract manufacturers to achieve 50% of the international market share in a single product, thus losing the pricing power, making a large part of the products made in China enter the market over competitive process, which makes some vulnerable suppliers have to release Abandon the quality principle and turn to producing adulterated products How to solve the above problems? Li Chunhua believes that "the establishment of industrial alliance may be an effective measure to solve these problems" He pointed out that the establishment of the plant extract industry alliance is the only way for Chinese enterprises to cope with the market competition environment, promote their own development and innovation, and improve the overall industry level It can promote win-win cooperation within the industry, and give full play to the advantages of human resources of advantageous enterprises Li Chunhua's idealized industrial alliance is such a state: industrial alliance is an important organizational form to realize joint innovation under the market conditions, and it is the need to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises and industries Industrial alliance is an organization led by enterprises and guided by market The plant extract industry alliance can provide the best quality products and services for high-quality customers; each alliance member only makes the best and the best products; the industry alliance can integrate the upstream and downstream related enterprises in the industry, form a strong market power, and promote the industrialization and commercialization of new technologies Li Chunhua explained to the participants several forms of industrial alliance, including R & D alliance, industrial chain cooperative industry alliance, market cooperative industry alliance and technology standard industry alliance He believes that the protection of intellectual property rights and product invention rights of alliance members is an ecological environment to promote a virtuous cycle of enterprises, and the establishment of mutual trust mechanism within the industry is the premise of a virtuous development of the industry The industry alliance will help to expel inferior suppliers and enhance the image of the industry and the country The idea of establishing industrial alliance has attracted heated discussion While many participants approved Li Chunhua's idea, they also put forward their own questions, including the ownership of independent intellectual property rights of new products after the establishment of the alliance, the distribution of interests of enterprises, the division of regional markets, whether it will lead to trade monopoly litigation in the international community, etc For the questions of enterprises, Luo Lin, director of the traditional Chinese Medicine Department of the chamber of Commerce of medical insurance, said that the chamber of Commerce of medical insurance has no idea about the establishment of Industrial Alliance for the time being due to various complex issues that may be involved At present, it mainly focuses on the formulation of industrial standards and testing methods, hoping to improve the threshold of the industry through the establishment of standards, and play the role of survival of the fittest.