"Hot pot" hard to hide the "cliff style" decline of Chinese medicine exports

Although cupping has gained a lot of popularity in the Olympic Games and is regarded as a landmark event for TCM to go to the world, the sluggish trade data of TCM suggest that the road of TCM internationalization is not easy to go Recently, according to the information released by China Chamber of Commerce for the import and export of medical and health products, in the first half of 2016, China's traditional Chinese medicine trade has become the category with the largest decline in overall pharmaceutical exports 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 According to the statistics of China Chamber of Commerce for the import and export of medical and health care products, the export of traditional Chinese medicine products, including traditional Chinese medicine and decoction pieces, proprietary Chinese medicine, extract and health care products, fell into negative growth in the first half of the year, and the export volume and export volume all fell "double", which is rare in the export record of traditional Chinese medicine products Among them, the export volume of extracts, which accounts for nearly 60% of the total export volume of traditional Chinese medicine products, has maintained a growth rate of more than 20% in the past 10 years, but in the first half of this year, the export volume fell by 10.6% year on year, and the export volume fell by 5.8% year on year The sharp decline in the export of plant essential oils is an important factor in the decline of the whole extract export For example, the export of lemon oil decreased by 43.3% year-on-year, the export of cinnamon oil decreased by 14.4%, the export of anise oil decreased by 20.1% year-on-year, and the export of peppermint oil decreased by 49.3% year-on-year According to analysis, in terms of export varieties of extracts, 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 extracts 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 According to the precipice drop data of export of Chinese patent medicine, as the representative of Chinese traditional medicine, the export volume of Chinese patent medicine in the first half of the year was only 99.691 million US dollars, down 27.4% year on year As the top three export markets of Chinese patent medicine, Hong Kong, the United States and Japan led the decline, especially Hong Kong, where the export volume fell nearly 50% year-on-year According to the analysis of China Medical Insurance chamber of Commerce, the export of Chinese patent medicine has been in a low state for two years, but the situation deteriorated sharply in the first half of this year, with a precipitous fall, making the road of internationalization of Chinese patent medicine full of hardships It is reported that in the first half of this year, the largest export of Chinese patent medicine is still Pianzihuang, 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 cool oil, with an export volume of US $10.823 million, down 13.1% year-on-year The export volume of other Angong Niuhuang pills and Yunnan Baiyao is less than US $10 million According to the chamber of Commerce for medical insurance of China, the overall situation of the export of Chinese patent medicine is not optimistic The main obstacle is that Chinese patent medicine is also managed by drugs in foreign countries Its sales must be registered Different countries have different registration requirements, different market access conditions, and the market entry is full of frustrations In addition, the current mainstream medical system is western medicine It is very difficult for traditional Chinese medicine to develop in some areas that do not understand the culture of traditional Chinese medicine, which also brings considerable 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, which is expected to promote the export of traditional Chinese medicine to a certain extent.