China officially adopts electronic trading standards for Chinese medicinal herb products
It was learned from the expert demonstration meeting on the specification standards for electronic trading of Chinese medicinal herb products held in Chengdu that, after review and deliberation by experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the China Traditional Chinese Medicine Logistics Expert Committee and other industry experts, China's first “Chinese medicinal herb e-commerce standard” was unanimously approved.
It is understood that for a long time, Chinese medicinal herbs have shown diverse characteristics in specifications and grades due to their natural attributes. Both supply and demand sides have had to rely on the physical characteristics of Chinese medicinal herbs, such as shape, color and smell, and complete transactions by inspecting the goods on site. The lack of circulation standards has become the main bottleneck in the development of e-commerce for agricultural products.
Fang Shuting, president of the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, introduced that this electronic trading standard for Chinese medicinal herbs consolidates major research results accumulated over nearly 10 years and was developed specifically for the development of e-commerce for Chinese medicinal herb products. In terms of operability, the standard abandons subjective, vague or descriptive expressions and establishes an easy-to-operate data-based identification method.
It is reported that the first batch of standards put into application includes 1,184 subdivided product specifications for 202 commonly used Chinese medicinal herb varieties, and will gradually expand. Trading platforms must, in accordance with the standard requirements, grade products listed for trading of Chinese medicinal herbs by quality, and through modern warehousing, product sampling inspections, delivery supervision, deposit supervision, credit evaluation and other means, ensure transparent and fair transactions and put an end to illegal acts such as passing off inferior goods as good ones and adulterating or counterfeiting.