The internationalization of plant extract industry faces challenges and needs to enhance international competitiveness

China's plant extract industry is the most likely sub industry to achieve internationalization in the field of traditional Chinese medicine at present However, due to the disunity of standards and the lack of corresponding market supervision departments, it is difficult to form industry self-discipline and industrial concentration, resulting in many enterprises still staying in the scope of chemical enterprises, and the overall scale of enterprises is small, the international competitiveness is not strong, so it is still necessary to become a powerful plant extraction industry in the future There is a long way to go The current situation of the international plant extract Market in recent years, the stable growth of the demand for plant extract in the world, especially in developed countries and regions such as Europe and the United States, has greatly stimulated the development of the industry In 2006, the global sales volume of plant extracts reached US $10.14 billion, and reached US $33.32 billion in 2016, with an average annual market development rate of about 12.63% Growth of global plant extract Market Scale in 2006-2016 (unit: US $100 million,%) Source: analysis report on plant extract industry of prospective industry research institute under the background of growing global herbal medicine market scale, in 2016, the global plant extract market continued to rise, which has formed a situation of four strong companies in the United States, Germany, Japan and France Germany's plant extract market has developed faster than the United States, accounting for 22.68% of the world's plant extract sales; the United States still maintains a larger advantage, accounting for 22.21% of the scale; Japan's plant extract Market Scale accounts for 19.75% of the world's total, about to break through 20%; France's share is 13.21% After rapid development in recent years, China has become more and more important in the world The market share of plant extracts has reached 7.16% Regional distribution of global plant extract Market in 2016 (unit:%) Source: analysis report on plant extract industry of prospective industry research institute In addition, in the main western consumer markets, especially in Europe, plant extracts are the main raw materials of botanical preparations, while in North America and Japan, they are mainly used in nutrition supplements, health food, cosmetics and other industries, and are the core products of natural health products market Global application structure distribution of plant extracts (unit:%) source: the international competitiveness of China's plant extracts needs to be improved in 2010-2015, the overall export volume of China's plant extracts industry is growing, from less than US $1 billion to more than US $2.5 billion The increasing export scale of plant extracts in China is inseparable from the technological breakthrough and model innovation constantly realized by the main body of private enterprises in China over the years, as well as the policy preference and encouragement of national policies for the export of the industry At the same time, the acceleration of the industry standard recognition process also objectively promotes China to keep in line with the international plant extracts and even to be in a leading position Driven by many factors, the international competitiveness of China's plant extract industry is constantly improving However, after the international financial crisis, the three major markets of Europe, the United States and Japan have shown a strong trend of localization, which put forward new requirements for the price, cost and safety of extract products, and Chinese enterprises are facing challenges in the international market First, the localization trend of each market Unsaturated fatty acid products are highly valued in European market, mainly produced in Nordic countries such as Norway; fermentation and legume products have become mainstream products in Japanese market, but few in China; the top seven products sold in American market are all localized products, which tends to weaken Chinese products Second, the innovation speed of global extract products is slow, and the price and cost become the focus of competition The days when Chinese enterprises used to rely on large European and American companies to launch star products every year to drive the market are gone forever Third, Chinese extract products are becoming the synonym of "big goods" and "cheap goods" Once they are "well-known", the market competitiveness will be difficult to guarantee and the future development will be worrying In this case, China's plant extract enterprises must improve their competitiveness as soon as possible, and plan and improve their products, standards, quality control, innovation ability, enterprise development strategies and other aspects to promote the healthy development of China's extract industry.