The problem of "high-quality, difficult-to-price" is becoming more and more serious

A reporter from "Economic Information Daily" recently visited and learned that with the development of China's traditional Chinese medicine industry, the demand for authentic Chinese medicinal materials is increasing
.
At the same time, due to the lag in the construction of industrial standardization, the problem of authentic Chinese medicinal materials "high-quality, hard-to-price" has become increasingly prominent
.
For example, wild Bupleurum is grown for about five years, and the price is 180 yuan per kilo.
The home-grown Bupleurum is sold in one year, and the price is more than 60 yuan per kilogram
.
"Pharmaceutical farmers are not unable to grow good medicinal materials, but are restricted by prices.
Good products cannot be sold at high prices and can only pursue production
.
" Some insiders suggested that authentic Chinese medicinal materials with high quality and high prices need to be strengthened in the future.
It is yet to accelerate the formation of a price protection mechanism for authentic medicinal materials
.
New technology helps "Medicine Township outside the Great Wall" medicinal materials planting.
After the autumn harvest, Niujiayingzi Town, Harqin Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the fields are a bit more quiet, but the medicinal materials processing plant is a scene of enthusiasm, and the workers are busy Screening, processing, and packaging of slices of Chinese medicinal materials, the processing workshop has a strong medicinal aroma
.
Kalaqin Banner is one of the important production bases of Chinese medicinal materials in the country.
It has a history of more than 300 years of medicinal materials planting
.
Among them, the output of Northern Adenophora and Platycodon grandiflorum accounted for 80% and 60% of the country's total output, respectively, and they are known as the "Hometown of Northern Adenophora" and "Platus grandiflorum"
.
Niujiayingzi Town is a concentrated area for the cultivation of Chinese medicinal materials in Harqin Banner, and is known as the "Medicine Township outside the Great Wall"
.
The mayor Gao Yingming said that the town’s arable land area is 145,000 mu, of which 80,000 mu is planted with medicinal materials.
At present, the town has registered 274 Chinese medicinal materials cooperatives.
There are more than 7,000 farmers growing medicinal materials.
Pharmaceutical companies, there are more than ten rough processing factories
.
Planting Chinese medicinal materials is a "hard work", and medicine farmers have to bend their waists all the time to work, and many people suffer from problems with their waists and legs
.
In recent years, the sowing, mining and processing of Chinese medicinal materials have been mechanized.
Mechanization has not only reduced the labor burden of medicinal farmers, but also promoted the development of Chinese medicinal materials in the direction of standardization.

.
"Modern technology has brought many new changes to the cultivation of traditional Chinese medicinal materials
.
" said Wang Hongwei, an agricultural technology extension officer at the Niujiayingzi Town Comprehensive Technical Service Center.
At most, only two-thirds of the seedlings can emerge from artificial seeding, because artificial soil cover often does not control the depth
.
Artificial planting of Chinese medicinal materials often uses chemical fertilizers, which will affect the quality of Chinese medicinal materials
.
Wang Hongwei and his colleagues are promoting the application technology of bacterial fertilizer to reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer
.
"The use of bacterial fertilizer can not only reduce the content of heavy metals in medicinal materials, but also reduce diseases and insect pests and increase yield
.
" Wang Hongwei said that after preliminary calculations, after using bacterial fertilizer, the output of Adenophora glabra, Platycodon grandiflorum and Achyranthes bidentata increased by about 15% to 20%.
%
.
Relying on high-quality authentic medicinal materials, Niujiayingzi Town has initially formed an industrial chain integrating medicinal material planting, decoction pieces processing, food processing, and sales, and is extending to health and other industries
.
The traditional Chinese medicinal material market in Niujiayingzi Town has become a major distribution center for Chinese medicinal materials, with an annual throughput of more than 50,000 tons of dry and fresh medicinal materials and an annual transaction volume of over 600 million yuan
.
The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is located in the northern part of China, with a vast area and complex and diverse natural conditions that have bred a wealth of medicinal plant resources.
Among them, the eastern region is represented by windbreak, scutellaria, sophora flavescens, Bupleurum, platycodon, etc.
In the western part of Inner Mongolia, licorice, ephedra, cistanche, and bitter beans are the representative authentic medicinal materials
.
Standardized construction to improve the quality of authentic medicinal materials According to the "Chinese Medicine Law of the People's Republic of China" that was implemented on July 1, 2017, authentic Chinese medicinal materials are selected through long-term clinical application of traditional Chinese medicine, produced in a specific area, and produced in other regions.
Compared with the same kind of Chinese medicinal materials, the quality and curative effect are better, and the quality is stable, and the Chinese medicinal materials have a higher reputation
.
Yu Rong is a well-known "native expert" of Chinese medicinal materials in Harqin Banner, and the general manager of Chifeng Rongxingtang Pharmaceutical Co.
, Ltd.

.
He has been engaged in the cultivation and processing of authentic medicinal materials for many years.
Yu Rong believes that the key to the good quality of medicinal materials is to ensure that the authentic medicinal materials are in the local real estate area, and on this basis, promote a series of standards for the quality of special Chinese medicinal materials, seedlings, and initial processing of ecological planting areas
.
Industry insiders suggest that standardization should be strengthened in the protection of provenance, production and processing of medicinal materials, and construction of planting bases
.
As the source of Chinese medicinal materials, seeds and seedlings are particularly important for the quality and efficacy of medicinal materials
.
At present, for the protection and sustainable use of Chinese medicine resources, five protection modes have been implemented: provenance protection, population protection, planting protection, development and protection of new medicine sources, and biotechnology protection
.
The scientific research personnel of the Alxa Comprehensive Test Station of the National Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials Industry Technology System, based on actual work, suggested that in the process of protecting medicinal plant germplasm resources, standardization should also be strengthened, and the description, data standards and data quality of medicinal plant germplasm resources should be standardized.
Manage, formulate and improve the classification standards and coding systems for medicinal plant germplasm resources, establish a medicinal plant germplasm resource sharing platform, and promote the protection and reasonable sharing of China's medicinal plant germplasm resources
.
"The protection of authentic Chinese medicinal materials also requires efforts in standardized cultivation and standardized management
.
" Li Minhui, a professor at the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said that Inner Mongolia relies on enterprises to establish a standardization system and quality traceability system for planting traditional Chinese medicine (Mongolian medicine), which can standardize traditional Chinese medicine.
The production of (Mongolian medicine) materials effectively guarantees the quality and safety of Chinese medicine (Mongolian medicine) materials
.
At present, Inner Mongolia has issued a series of policies to determine the importance of the standardization of traditional Chinese medicine (Mongolian medicine) materials, support the selection of the provenance of major medicinal plants, the selection and breeding of new varieties and the establishment of a breeding system for improved varieties, and explore the formulation of authentic Chinese medicine ( Standardized planting standards for Mongolian medicinal materials, carry out the standardization, large-scale, and industrialized seed and seedling breeding of authentic medicinal materials, and ensure the production of high-quality traditional Chinese medicine (Mongolian medicinal) materials from the source
.
In 2019, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Mongolian Medicinal Materials and Chinese Medicinal Materials Planting Standardization Technical Committee was established to improve the standardization service capacity of traditional Chinese medicine (Mongolian medicine) planting and improve the standardized service system for Chinese medicine (Mongolian medicine) planting.

.
In 2020, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Market Supervision Administration launched a high-quality standard system construction project.
At present, the authentic medicinal materials of Inner Mongolia, Cistanche, Mongolian Astragalus, Inner Mongolia licorice, and Fangfeng have established a complete set of planting and technical standards.
Shao’s high-quality standard system is under construction.
This high-quality standard system has gathered scientific research universities and key demonstration enterprises to lay a solid foundation for the implementation of standards
.
"Medicinal materials must be of high quality in order to have high-quality curative effects.
We hope that through standardized construction, the excellent quality of Chinese medicinal materials can be guaranteed
.
" Yu Rong said
.
In the process of standardization construction of the Chinese medicinal materials industry, it is necessary to particularly strengthen the high-standard construction and management of Chinese medicinal materials planting bases
.
Restricted by scale and distribution, it is difficult to implement unified production standards for Chinese herbal medicine planting bases, and management is difficult.
Moreover, in some Chinese herbal medicine planting bases, there are many types of medicinal materials, and production also involves planting, processing, circulation, storage, etc.
In terms of links, the current established and implemented standards for Chinese medicinal materials only involve part of them
.
Li Minhui and other experts suggested that the current supervision of Chinese medicinal material bases is mostly result supervision.
On this basis, process supervision can be strengthened, especially the supervision of standardized operations in the planting process
.
Price protection mechanism needs to be established.
Yu Rong has been dealing with Chinese medicinal materials for decades.
In recent years, he has felt that the problem of “high quality, difficult and better price” of Chinese medicinal materials has become increasingly prominent, which has also affected the standardized production of authentic medicinal materials and the health of the Chinese medicine industry.
Development
.
Yu Rong used Bupleurum as an example to say that wild Bupleurum is grown for about five years, and the price is 180 yuan per kilogram.
The home-grown Bupleurum is sold in a year, and the price is more than 60 yuan per kilogram
.
"Pharmaceutical farmers are not unable to grow good medicinal materials, but are restricted by prices.
Good products cannot be sold at high prices and can only pursue output
.
" Several pharmaceutical company leaders said that the medical department needs to go through the bidding process for purchasing Chinese medicinal materials.
Whoever is cheaper will win the bid.
In order to lower the price, some manufacturers just mix them with inferior quality and use shoddy materials as good ones.
As a result, the market for high-quality and better-priced Chinese medicinal materials has disappeared.

.
Mixing Radix Paeoniae Rubra with red peony roots and Atractylodes japonicus with Atractylodes macrocephala.
.
.
The reporter learned that this kind of "mixing and matching" traditional Chinese medicinal materials with mediocre efficacy but high yield and Chinese medicinal materials with excellent efficacy but low yield.
Not uncommon
.
"Everyone always says that it doesn't work to take traditional Chinese medicine now.
In fact, it is not that the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine is deteriorating, but the fraudulent behavior in pursuit of economic benefits has affected the purity of the Chinese herbal medicine market
.
" A person in charge of a Chinese herbal medicine manufacturer in Inner Mongolia said sadly.

.
The "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting the Inheritance, Innovation and Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine" issued in 2019 stated that it is necessary to vigorously promote the quality improvement of traditional Chinese medicine and the high-quality development of the industry, improve the market competition environment, and promote high-quality and competitive prices of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces
.
Article 23 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Traditional Chinese Medicine stipulates that the state establishes an authentic Chinese medicinal material evaluation system, supports the selection and breeding of authentic Chinese medicinal materials, supports the construction of authentic Chinese medicinal materials production bases, and strengthens the ecology of authentic Chinese medicinal materials production bases.
Environmental protection, encourage the adoption of measures such as the protection of geographical indication products to protect authentic Chinese medicinal materials
.
Practitioners in the Chinese medicinal material industry such as Yu Rong said that improving the quality of Chinese medicinal materials is the basis for guaranteeing high quality and better prices.
In addition, it is necessary to establish a price protection mechanism for authentic medicinal materials and to classify medicinal materials to reflect differences in prices
.
At present, except for a few varieties of Chinese medicinal materials, most of them are still sold without difference.
Product competition is simplified to pure price competition, and the correlation between the quality of medicinal materials and the price of medicinal materials is not strong
.
Yu Rong said that there is an urgent need to establish a grading standard that can truly reflect the quality of medicinal materials to provide support for the identification of high-quality medicinal materials and the realization of differentiated evaluation and pricing of Chinese medicinal materials
.
Several heads of Chinese medicinal material manufacturers suggested that relevant departments such as health, agriculture, and market supervision can form a cooperative mechanism for price protection and market supervision of Chinese medicinal materials, strengthen joint supervision of the Chinese medicinal material industry, and standardize the chaos of the medicinal material market
.
In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the brand building of high-quality Chinese medicinal materials, register trademarks for authentic Chinese medicinal materials, apply for geographical indication products, green products, etc.
, to shape the brand of high-quality medicinal materials, and to promote the sale of high-quality medicinal materials at a good price with the brand effect
.
(Reported by reporter Wei Jingyu in Hohhot)