Ginseng "medicinal transfer": enter the field of food without a production license

China, the ginseng
"
large production, small output value of small countries
"
.'s ginseng-producing areas are dominated by Jilin Province, which produces about
85% of the country
. Inof this year, jilin ginseng receipt season, fresh ginseng sales prices climbed steadily, reaching
80,
yuan
/
catties or more, while last year, fresh ginseng purchase price of about
40,
yuan
/
catties,
2009
acquisition price is less than
20
yuan

jin.ginseng prices are soaring, the reality is that Chinese the ginseng industry generates only
4% of the total value of the global
. In the

medicinal to eatroad, over the years the domestic ginseng industry slow progress
-
this is not only one of the important reasons why Chinese the ginseng industry is difficult to dig deep into the high added value of ginseng products.: Raw materials that can only be used for health foodsSome ginseng products in China were allowed to be marketed as food around the
20th

1990s
90s. However, in
2002 and
, the Ministry of Health issued the Notice on Further Standardizing the Management of Health Food Raw Materials (Health Law Supervision And Development No.
, No. 51
), which stated that under the Food Hygiene Law of the People's Republic of China, a list of items that are both food and medicines, a list of items available for health food and a list of prohibited items for health food were issued. Among them, ginseng was included in the List of Items Available for Health Food.this indicates that ginseng is limited to the scope of consumption of health care products, all ginseng as raw materials products can not be processed for food production license. After this, we can't find legal food with ginseng as raw material in our market.this policy restriction undoubtedly has a certain impact on China's ginseng industry, the early years of China's ginseng prices in the long-term depressed situation, and even from time to time to sell
"
. But by contrast, South Korea's Goliath has been at high prices for the past two decades.due to the policy restrictions at that time, the secondary processing, development and utilization of ginseng in China is obviously inadequate, making our country gradually become a raw material base for ginseng products in many countries. In China's ginseng industry is still stuck in the extensive mode of planting ginseng, raw material ginseng exports, other countries such as South Korea, has begun to buy raw ginseng from our country, processed into products after the cost of more than ten times or even dozens of times sold to Europe and the United States, Southeast Asia, or a large number of return to our country."
"

on the road: from medicinal to edible liberalization policy has loosened after nearly a decade.
Article 8 of article

19of the Jilin Provincial People's Government no.
19
of 2010
pointed out that ginseng should be actively piloted to enter food, and ginseng food standards should be formulated urgently. In accordance with the principle of food safety and industrial development, as soon as possible to formulate the introduction of artificial cultivation of ginseng food series standards and enterprise standards. Standards should be developed to do a good job of scientific demonstration, fully listen to the views of relevant experts, enterprises and consumers, to ensure the advanced, applicable and operability of standards. Enterprise standards should be filed before trial production.September



, the Ministry of Health also agreed to carry out a pilot project on artificial cultivation of ginseng into food in Jilin. It will be limited to Jilin Province and
completed by
end
March
2011.chinese ginseng has since experienced an expansion from medicinal to edible, although only in Jilin pilot expansion, but also took an important step. But the real dawn of policy was in
2012
2012.In 2012 and
, the Ministry of Health issued an announcement on the approval of ginseng (artificial cultivation) as a new resource food, which stated that ginseng (artificial cultivation) is now approved as a new resource food in accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China and the Measures for the Administration of Food for New Resources. The production and operation of ginseng (artificial cultivation) shall comply with the relevant laws, regulations and standards. the introduction of this policy, for China's ginseng industry can be said to be a good news. Ginseng as a new resource food has been approved, will hopefully from the policy and regulations for the positive development of China's ginseng industry to provide a guarantee. it is understood that before this, China's ginseng exports,
80%
exports are raw material ginseng, although the output is relatively large compared with other countries, but from the industrial height, is still in the primary stage. Not only does China's ginseng industrial structure exist such as small enterprises, disorderly cultivation, lack of deep processing and innovation, China's ginseng culture base is also very weak. Compared with South Korea and some countries in Southeast Asia, china's ginseng consumption is very small. Data show that the per capita consumption of ginseng in South Korea is
20,
times that of China, while the ginseng deep processing products in South Korea, such as ginseng tea, ginseng sugar, ginseng powder and other products. The road ahead is long: from medicine to food there are still many obstacles Although there is a policy of
" support
"
, but China's ginseng industry, from medicinal use to edible development is not
"
. Although the Ministry of Health issued the "On the approval of ginseng (artificial cultivation) as a new resource food" announcement, ginseng can be used as a new resource to enter the food field, but according to the State Administration of Quality Inspection "on the organization of all
28
categories of food undocumented inspection work notice" (National Quality Inspection Administration
no. 644
), in all
28
categories of food without participation. means that ginseng enters the food sector but does not enter the catalogue of production licenses. Further, the current ginseng enterprises can not handle production permits, without a production license to enter the field of food, it is equivalent to no access to the market. information shows that in
the first half of
2011, China exported ginseng
1331.3
tons with
15.3
U.S. dollars
/
kg
, with an export value of only
203 31
,000 U.S. dollars, while South Korea exported only
209,
tons of ginseng at
139.1
U.S. dollars
/
kg, while exports amounted to
2903.
million U.S. dollars. Although China's ginseng export volume is
6
times that of Korea's Ginseng, its export volume is only
70% of South Korea'
. South Korea is at the
of the
ginseng industry, with only 10% of the world's ginseng production. Chinese Participating in Korean ginseng, from genus to quality almost no difference, Jilin University School of Pharmacy director Li Pingya in an interview with the media, said that China's Jilin ginseng has just been excavated than south Korea's ginseng quality is much better, the internal quality is also better than them. However, compared with South Korea, Chinese is at a clear disadvantage in the global market competition, why? , apart from the different ginseng production management mechanisms in China and South Korea, the different publicity efforts have a lot to do with the impact of relevant policies. It is understood that at present, many developed countries to ginseng as a food application, especially in South Korea more than

90% of ginseng through food consumption, its products as many as
600
kinds, ginseng products are also advertised as a popular food for both young and old. Zhang Juntian, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said:


ginseng tea and ginseng drinks are everywhere in Korea, and their benefits far exceed ginseng drugs and health care products.
” However, in our country, due to the policy cross-over gap, ginseng has been approved as a new resource food, but has been slow to obtain a production license into the field of food. Therefore, in China, ginseng marketing model is also limited to the traditional sale of raw materials ginseng and primary processing products, and these raw materials and processing products are also targeted as high-end health care products, target audience is also a small range of high-end consumers. time is still running out and the pace of competitors will not stop. China's ginseng industry, from medicinal to edible, how much time can wait?