Fang Shuting, President of the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Discusses the Proportion of Traditional Chinese Medicine Exports

“At present, there are more than 1,000 traditional Chinese medicine enterprises in our country, and China is a major country in terms of traditional Chinese medicine exports!” The 46th Zhangshu Medicine Trade Fair is currently being held. Fang Shuting, President of the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, after attending the opening ceremony, said in an interview with People's Daily Online that China's traditional Chinese medicine exports still face certain problems and require coordinated efforts by multiple departments to strengthen exports.

Fang Shuting explained that at present, in our country's medical industry, especially the traditional Chinese medicine industry, the main problems are small scale, fragmentation, and poor quality. “The scale of enterprises is not very large, they are scattered, and the poor quality refers to the gaps in medical management and operations!” Fang Shuting explained that the year before last, the Ministry of Science and Technology and four other ministries proposed calling on pharmaceutical enterprises to merge and reorganize. This was in the hope that pharmaceutical enterprises would become bigger, and once they become bigger, they can align with the world's pharmaceutical enterprises in terms of basic management rules and other aspects.

Statistics show that from January to November 2014, the total export value of traditional Chinese medicine products in our country reached 3.2 billion US dollars, while the total import value of traditional Chinese medicine products declined for the first time. In the interview, Fang Shuting pointed out: “A few years ago, some people said that China, this major country of traditional Chinese medicine, exported only 5% of the world's traditional Chinese medicine. Such a statement is completely inaccurate!” Fang Shuting explained that Liu Zhanglin, Vice President of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products, also refuted this export figure. “In the world, in terms of traditional Chinese medicine exports, China is still a major country, and the volume is absolutely not 5%. It is just that our country has some gaps with some countries in the export of certain commodities and certain varieties.” Fang Shuting gave an example, saying that Korean red ginseng, as a well-known product of that country, has a higher export volume in a single item than ours, but in the entire traditional Chinese medicine industry, our country's exports absolutely account for the vast majority. “According to statistics from the Chamber of Commerce for Medicines, Health Products, and Exports, we account for about 20%.” Fang Shuting said.

During the interview, Fang Shuting stated that China's exports still face certain problems, which require further study by the business community, the scientific and technological community, and government departments to do a good job in this area and strengthen the export of traditional Chinese medicine.