Chinese medicinal herb cultivation is still family-based and needs to develop at scale
In the recommendations of the 13th Five-Year Plan released on November 3, 2015, in the pharmaceutical sector, emphasis was placed on promoting traditional Chinese medicine and ethnic medicine. Data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that in the first half of this year, the main business revenue of pharmaceutical industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 8.91% year on year, while the growth rate of traditional Chinese medicine enterprises was 5.2%. In recent years, a wave of enthusiasm for Chinese medicinal herb cultivation has swept across the country, and with the continuous expansion of cultivation area, problems such as backward cultivation techniques, pesticide residues, and outdated models have become increasingly obvious.
Chinese medicinal herb cultivation is currently still family-based, and its ability to withstand both natural risks and market risks is relatively weak. To address the risk resistance of Chinese medicinal herb cultivation, many medicinal herb production areas have begun trying group-based development. It is understood that many herb farmers mostly choose varieties they have previously cultivated, varieties that can yield short-term profits, and varieties with government subsidies. Market changes affect Chinese medicinal herb cultivation. Reduced production caused by natural disasters and other factors leads to sharp rises in the prices of Chinese medicinal herbs, and herb farmers follow the trend and plant accordingly, causing the cultivation area to surge as well; conversely, when prices fall, no one pays attention. In terms of scaling up, models of jointly establishing Chinese medicinal herb cooperatives or setting up cultivation bases have already appeared in various places. In this way, unified sales channels can be opened up, greatly enhancing the risk resistance of Chinese medicinal herb cultivation. Some production areas have even begun directly connecting with pharmaceutical companies to carry out "order-based" cultivation, skipping the intermediary link of medicinal herb dealers. Facing increasingly strict state control over medicines, many traditional Chinese patent medicine manufacturers are actively building their own GAP production bases to ensure drug quality. From this it can be seen that scaled cultivation of Chinese medicinal herbs will be the development direction of the future.
Although the domestic Chinese medicinal herb cultivation area has continued to expand in recent years, the domestic Chinese medicine market seems to have fallen into a trough with no sign of rebound yet, and in the first half of this year China's export value of Chinese medicinal herbs fell by 7.5% year on year. Such growth further worsens the current situation of supply exceeding demand. Therefore, Chinese medicinal herbs need scaled development, and also need standardization, to lay a solid foundation for the currently sluggish market. Only in this way will there truly be a spring in which Chinese medicine blossoms.