from hiding in medicine cabinets to cross-border integration, "zhejiang-made good medicines" are moving towards a new track
2024-09-17
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
chaozhou news reporter yang yifan, wang keyu, xu xianfei, fu yingjie, correspondent li zengwei, shou siyue
1.15 million packets were sold within 24 hours of going online. the 2.0 version of wumeitang launched by zhejiang provincial hospital of traditional chinese medicine was snapped up by young people this summer. in pan'an, a medicinal town, traditional medicinal food is made into pre-prepared dishes, and the annual sales of fuling steamed buns alone exceed 20 million yuan. various cosmetics developed with pearls, gardenias, etc. as raw materials have entered the "must-buy list" of more and more beauty lovers.
the continuous emergence of "zhejiang-produced good medicines" has broken the public's traditional perception of chinese medicine. cross-border integration has found a unique explosive track, which also reflects zhejiang's protection, inheritance and innovation of chinese medicine, a historical classic industry.
recently, our province issued "several policy measures for high-level inheritance and high-quality development of historical classic industries in zhejiang province" and "action plan for inheritance, innovation and development of historical classic industries in zhejiang province", encouraging the acceleration of product innovation and upgrading, supporting the development of creative designs that integrate china's excellent traditional culture with contemporary aesthetics and popular trends, and launching a batch of new, fine and treasures from the historical classic industry.
"good medicines produced in zhejiang" have a profound and long-standing "inner core", and they keep pace with the times and are constantly enriched. from being hidden in medicine cabinets to crossing the fashion industry, traditional chinese medicine has been integrated across industries and renewed its "face". the innovative and linked development of the chinese medicine industry is also striving to become a good "prescription" for getting rich.
pan'an medicinal food. photo courtesy of pan'an county media integration center
rich "lining"
zhejiang xiancao turns into industrial advantage
in the traditional chinese medicine culture museum of zhejiang shouxiangu pharmaceutical co., ltd., a time-honored chinese enterprise, ancient medical books and chinese medicinal instruments attract visitors to take a closer look with glasses in hand or to take pictures with their mobile phones. they then walk into the exhibition areas of modern planting and processing technology and products such as "ganoderma lucidum spore powder" and "ippondia tinctoria granules". in just a few hundred meters, it is a microcosm of the long tradition of zhejiang traditional chinese medicine.
looking at the historical coordinates from afar, we can see the profound "inside" and heritage of zhejiang traditional chinese medicine: the world's first herbal jar is on display at the kuahuqiao site in hangzhou; chinese medicines such as gorgon fruit and chinese medicine instruments have been discovered at the liangzhu ancient city site and the hemudu site; and samples of ganoderma lucidum were unearthed at tianluoshan in ningbo, tracing the time when ganoderma lucidum was used as a medicine to at least 6,800 years ago.
zhejiang traditional chinese medicine, which has been passed down to this day, has great vitality and abundant resources. transforming resource advantages into development advantages is the consensus of the development of zhejiang's traditional chinese medicine industry.
on the 10,000-acre medicinal material planting base, farmers are working hard. in the "zhe bawei" medicinal material market, there are many shops and merchants from all over the country. as the "hometown of chinese medicinal materials", pan'an is the largest main production area and the most important distribution center of chinese medicinal materials in zhejiang province. the chinese medicinal materials industry is the traditional characteristic industry with the longest history and the most solid foundation in the local area. taking advantage of the home field, pan'an has realized the layout of the entire industrial chain from planting to production and processing, and then to brand building. by the end of 2023, there will be about 48,000 chinese medicinal materials growers in pan'an county, and the output value of the traditional chinese medicine and health industry will exceed 9 billion yuan, and it is striving to reach 12 billion yuan this year.
"good medicine comes from good medicinal materials." good medicine is produced from good mountains and waters, which is the beginning of the industry. a series of plans and support policies have accelerated the development of the traditional chinese medicine industry in our province.
chun'an county has built 28 chinese medicinal materials planting bases covering an area of more than 200 acres by optimizing the allocation of technology, land and other resource elements, establishing the chunbei chinese medicine industry alliance and other measures. the annual output of raspberries and cornus officinalis accounts for 33% and 17% of the national total output respectively.
in order to make the characteristic chinese medicine resources more powerful, zhejiang implemented the "zhejiang eight flavors" advantageous characteristic industry cluster project in 2021, driving the formation of a high-quality development system of the entire industry chain of "zhejiang good medicine". the reporter learned from the provincial chinese medicinal materials industry association that in the past three years, the planting area of chinese medicinal materials in the nine counties (cities and districts) implementing the cluster project has reached 438,900 mu, an increase of 7.36% over before implementation; the total output value of the entire industry chain reached 14.277 billion yuan, an increase of 54.78% over before implementation, driving an increase of 6,500 yuan per capita annual income for 114,400 medicinal farmers.
last year, the zhejiang provincial administration of traditional chinese medicine, the provincial department of economic and information technology, the provincial department of agriculture and rural affairs, etc. jointly compiled and announced the "catalogue of zhejiang local medicinal materials" (first batch), which included requirements such as the authentic production areas of 44 local medicinal materials, to provide guidance for further optimizing the layout of production areas and developing key varieties across the province.
nowadays, the support of digital technology is becoming the secret to increasing the production of "good medicines produced in zhejiang".
in dajing town, yueqing, wenzhou, dendrobium officinale, known as the "first of the nine chinese immortal herbs", is growing in a greenhouse with an all-steel frame. yueqing is the authentic production area and core production area of dendrobium officinale, and has won national gold business cards such as "hometown of dendrobium officinale in china". nowadays, the cultivation of immortal herbs is becoming more and more "technical", with information and digital cultivation. you can see the temperature, humidity and other data in the greenhouse by opening your mobile phone, and the management efficiency has been greatly improved. only 4 people are needed to manage the 200-acre greenhouse.
the construction of digital platforms has equipped traditional chinese medicine with a smart brain. focusing on ecological planting, standardized processing, digital circulation, and full traceability, the traditional chinese medicine industry brain independently explored and developed by pan'an has reshaped the ecological planting mechanism of traditional chinese medicine, reduced the use of pesticides and fertilizers by more than 60%, and increased the effective ingredients of traditional chinese medicine by more than 15%.
the opening of new opportunities for medicine and food has provided new momentum for the industrial development of "zhejiang-produced good medicines". in november 2023, three substances declared by our province, namely, dendrobium officinale, ganoderma lucidum, and cornus officinalis, were officially included in the national catalog of substances that are both food and chinese medicinal materials according to tradition. in the past, they were only eaten as chinese medicinal materials. after being selected as "medicine and food", dendrobium officinale and other substances are accelerating the deep processing in multiple fields, driving the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries.
"rich natural resources and outstanding authentic brands." wu huaqing, secretary general of zhejiang traditional chinese medicine industry association, concluded that our province currently has 2,385 kinds of medicinal resources, and the total amount of resources and the total number of authentic medicinal materials are ranked third in the country. it is known as the "treasure house of medicinal plants in the southeast". the old "eight flavors of zhejiang" (fritillaria thunbergii, atractylodes macrocephala, corydalis yanhusuo, scrophularia ningpoensis, white peony root, chrysanthemum chrysanthemum, ophiopogon japonicus, curcuma longa), the new "eight flavors of zhejiang" (dendrobium officinale, ganoderma lucidum, saffron, rubus idaeus, tripterygium wilfordii, citrus aurantium, linderae scutellariae, peucedanum pekinensis), "five flavors of pan" (atractylodes macrocephala, corydalis yanhusuo, fritillaria thunbergii, scrophularia ningpoensis, white peony root) and other authentic medicinal materials brands are well-known at home and abroad. among them, dendrobium officinale, ganoderma lucidum and other zhejiang's advantageous medicinal materials industries have high added value. zhejiang traditional chinese medicine, which has a long history, is now constantly inheriting and innovating.
a new face
“traditional chinese medicine +” crosses boundaries
the historical classic industry is rejuvenated. in addition to cultural awareness and sentimental consumption, how to break through the new integration of tradition and modernity is a must-answer question. in zhejiang, chinese medicine has continuously crossed borders to adapt to consumption upgrades and the public's demand for a healthy life. various "chinese medicine +" products are accelerating their popularity and entering more diverse consumption scenarios.
medicinal food is already familiar to many people. hu qingyu tang medicinal food restaurant in hangzhou has been in business for 40 years. with professional knowledge of traditional chinese medicine and the concept of continuous innovation, the "old tradition" has won the favor of young people - in the first half of this year, young people accounted for half of the customers.
the reporter came to the lakeside hotel in pan'an and happened to meet the owner hu ping who was explaining the medicinal food on the table to the diners in detail. the medicinal food she made, such as the "golden pig's hoof", has won many awards. the ingenious combination of food and chinese medicine has not only won praise from diners from all over the world, but also attracted many foreign merchants to come and seek cooperation.
pre-made medicinal food products using innovative technology are finding their way onto more people's tables. in pan'an, the sales of "fuling mantou", which is the best-selling product, exceeded 20 million yuan last year. at a recent ordering conference, products such as polygonatum odoratum duck were favored by customers from hangzhou, wenzhou and other places, who placed orders one after another. this delighted jiang gongbiao, president of the pan'an county medicinal food industry association: "by continuously tapping into traditional medicinal food resources, accelerating talent training and the construction of a systematic and standardized industry, convenient and healthy pre-made medicinal food products are opening up more new markets."
chinese herbal tea drinks are also becoming more trendy and younger.
the sour plum soup from zhejiang provincial hospital of traditional chinese medicine is hard to come by, and milk tea shops focusing on "health preservation" have opened in many places. the "old brand" fang huichuntang has teamed up with a coffee brand to launch a "paste prescription health preservation series of coffee drinks", which has frequently become a hot search. from major traditional chinese medicine hospitals to traditional old brand pharmaceutical companies and new companies, they have all entered the market.
"five-fingered peach herbal milk tea", "cassia seed lotus leaf herbal milk tea", "five black herbal milk tea", in early july, the "summer limited" version of herbal milk tea from wangjiang street community health service center in shangcheng district, hangzhou, captured the taste buds of many young people as soon as it was launched. "in recent years, medicinal food and herbal tea drinks have become popular, and young people are increasingly fond of the way of 'eating and nourishing'. the launch of herbal milk tea is also to 'hit' more young people and inject new vitality into the inheritance, innovation and development of traditional chinese medicine." said xu jiangming, director of the center.
the refreshing and ready-to-drink dendrobium officinale beverage has made the traditional herbal jelly a favorite of many young people. "the new production line is about to be put into production, with a daily output of 50,000 bottles of freshly squeezed dendrobium officinale juice." from traditional chinese medicine pieces and health products to entering the fast-moving consumer goods field, chen xiliang, general manager of zhejiang wanshoukang biotechnology co., ltd., is full of confidence in opening up new markets.
in addition to "medicine and food have the same origin", zhejiang-produced traditional chinese medicine has also seen the emergence of new cross-border business growth points.
linqi town, chun'an county, has developed a raspberry picking tour. photo provided by the interviewee
in 2023, zhejiang's total cosmetics exports ranked first in the country, making it a major province in the country for beauty products. in recent years, with the strong rise of zhejiang beauty brands such as proya, huaxizi, and mao geping, the story of traditional chinese medicine ingredients that has been passed down for thousands of years has caught the "express train" of zhejiang beauty products.
"pearls have a long history of medicinal tradition, and the transformation from 'pearl' to 'treasure' has become a reality," said he yandong, head of zhejiang hu qing yu tang herbal medicine co., ltd. pearls are very much in line with people's current health needs. there is great potential in telling the story of pearl ingredients, and it can also open up new tracks for time-honored pharmaceutical companies. relying on the pearl industry in shanxiahu town, zhuji, the company develops and utilizes low-value-added pearls, and the annual sales of pearl hand creams and pearl powder preparations exceed one million. he yandong hopes to make cosmetics with pearls as the main raw material bigger, stronger and deeper, "to drive the transformation of pearl companies in shanxiahu town and enable the sustainable and high-quality development of the pearl industry."
with the rise of concepts such as ingredient skin care, cosmetics using medicinal resources, plant resources, etc. as raw materials have ushered in new opportunities in recent years. companies in many parts of zhejiang use pearls, gardenias, etc. as raw materials to explore chinese skin care products that are more suitable for chinese skin.
oshiman, a zhejiang-made cosmetics brand known as the pearl skin care family, has successfully occupied a place in the domestic whitening market with its essence, lotion, cream and other products with pearl ingredients as the core. wenzhou has seen the emergence of excellent companies such as taishun kanghong biotechnology, which use plant extracts as the main raw materials. it has applied the local chinese medicine gardenia to the development of cosmetic raw materials and has registered the production of more than 10 cosmetics such as gardenia soothing moisturizing cream, with an annual output value of over 30 million yuan.
huaxizi, a zhejiang-produced cosmetics company, is based on the theory of contemporary traditional chinese medicine and pioneered the "oriental cosmetics r&d system". in the seven years since its establishment, huaxizi has completed the extraction and preparation of 50 kinds of flower raw materials, 30 kinds of skin care efficacy screening tests, built a database of more than 100 flower formulas, and has more than 20 invention patents related to plant extracts and special mineral raw materials. huaxizi's full range of beauty products, represented by air powder, jade cushion, and concentric lock lipstick, ranked first in the annual sales of chinese online cosmetics (tmall + douyin) for three consecutive years from 2021 to 2023.
this year, zhejiang launched the "ecological beauty" common prosperity action, guiding the cultivation of the "seven fairies" of ecological beauty (dendrobium officinale, polygonatum sibiricum, pearl, gardenia jasminoides, pomelo, camellia oleifera, and saffron), and accelerating the extraction, research and development, and application of zhejiang's specialty raw materials. "this will effectively drive the added value of the cosmetics plant raw materials industry and create an ecological beauty common prosperity industry chain of 'enterprise + base + farmers'," said wu hui, director of the cosmetics department of the provincial drug administration.
a facial mask developed by zhejiang hu qing yu tang herbal medicine co., ltd. photo by our reporter yang yifan
the recipe for getting rich
traditional chinese medicine drives regional development
threading a needle, stringing beads into a chain. with zhejiang's rich traditional chinese medicine cultural resources and innovative development trend, each good medicine is effectively driving regional development.
"during the peak summer tourist season, the occupancy rate of b&bs is basically above 70%. especially on weekends, rooms are easily sold out if you are slow, and reservations must be made at least one week in advance." located in wuzhuang village, linqi town, chun'an county, "dongliju" is the first b&b with a chinese medicinal material theme in the county. when the reporter met the person in charge, hu zefeng, he was busy greeting new guests.
by empowering cultural tourism, a number of new scenes of traditional chinese medicine and health tourism are emerging in various parts of our province.
as an important town of traditional chinese medicine, linqi town, based on its endowment of traditional chinese medicine resources, connects raspberry picking gardens, qiandao lake traditional chinese medicine museum, and traditional chinese medicine markets, cultivates raspberry picking tour brands, introduces more traditional chinese medicine theme hotels and homestays, and creates a "health tourism community". "at present, a hotel with health theme is under construction, which can provide more than 200 beds and is expected to start trial operation in the first half of next year." fang xing, a member of the linqi town party committee, is full of expectations. looking at the entire chun'an county, in 2023, the traditional chinese medicine culture tourism will attract a total of 310,000 tourists and realize economic income of more than 30 million yuan.
while attracting urban tourists with traditional chinese medicine, local talents have also found a new breakthrough to go abroad. in recent years, the human resources and social security bureau of pan'an county has implemented the talent training work of "medicine village maternity sitters". mo xiujuan is one of the representatives. in 2018, she founded a housekeeping company to pave the way for more people. "more than 100 people have been trained this year, and each of them has seven or eight orders on average." mo xiujuan said that nowadays, maternity nannies who understand medicinal diet and nursing are particularly popular, and have become pan'an's "living advertisements", spreading pan'an's medicinal diet and local snack culture. pan'an also went to yilong county, sichuan province, which is assisted by counterparts, to hold a targeted training course for "medicine village maternity sitters", giving local women new employment options.
a good medicinal material is connected to farmers on one end and to the market and regional development on the other. previously, the provincial food and drug administration formulated and issued an action plan to explore the development path of "secondary industry leading primary industry to promote tertiary industry" and promote the traditional chinese medicine industry to help mountainous counties achieve leapfrog and high-quality development.
during the reporter's visit, he saw that in mountainous counties, leading chinese medicine companies have fully released the industry's ecological value, resource value, and economic value by laying out the entire chinese medicine industry chain.
in wuyi county, shouxian valley is conducting research on the entire industry chain of ganoderma lucidum, dendrobium candidum, etc., and the company actively gives back to the village after it grows stronger. breaking the traditional "company + farmers" production model, shouxian valley adopts the "land rental + employees + standardization" model to achieve standardized production of chinese medicine, ensure the quality of medicinal materials, and also let nearly 2,000 farmers feel the tangible benefits: the average land rent per mu is nearly 1,000 yuan, which is nearly 1/3 higher than the market rental price. many elderly people left behind in rural areas have been hired to become good at growing medicine, which has increased their income and learned health care knowledge. today, wuyi county has formed a chinese medicinal material planting base with shouxian valley company as the leader and "wu qiwei" as the focus. chinese medicinal materials have become the third largest industry in wuyi after grain and pigs, effectively driving farmers' income and rural revitalization.
the reporter learned from the zhejiang traditional chinese medicine industry association that by 2023, the total output value of zhejiang's traditional chinese medicine industry above designated size will reach 21 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7%. zhejiang is actively building a high-quality development system for the entire industry chain of "zhejiang-produced good medicines", making the new "zhejiang eight flavors" bigger and stronger, and actively cultivating a 10 billion industry for food and drug substances and medicinal diet industries.
facing the trillion-level traditional chinese medicine industry, how can zhejiang seize a larger market share in the future? in wu huaqing's view, zhejiang should give full play to its advantages, continuously integrate with multiple industries, extend the traditional chinese medicine industry chain, enhance the added value of the industry, and develop longer and more industrial possibilities.
expert opinion:
break through the “innate deficiency” and seize new consumption opportunities
wu huaqing
the chinese herbal medicine industry is not only a classic industry in our province, but also an industry that enriches and benefits the people. in recent years, our province has attached importance to the development of the chinese herbal medicine industry, continuously strengthened policy guidance, promoted the agglomeration and development of the chinese herbal medicine industry; strengthened science and technology to promote the quality and efficiency of the industry; promoted the development of the food and drug material industry, expanded the extension of the industrial chain, etc.; and continuously strengthened brand building to enhance the influence of "zhejiang-produced good medicines".
although zhejiang has a large total amount of chinese medicinal materials resources and high added value of superior medicinal materials such as dendrobium officinale, we must also be aware of its "innate deficiencies": restricted by land area, planting costs, etc., the planting area of the chinese medicinal materials industry in our province is less than one million mu; while the top three provinces in the country in terms of planting area all have more than 8 million mu, which has also directly affected the current scale of zhejiang's traditional chinese medicine industry, which is not at the forefront of the country.
faced with inherent limitations, "zhejiang-produced good medicines" are innovated in inheritance and inherited in innovation, which is the inevitable path of development. what is inherited is the concept and method, and what is innovated is the technology, means, market and management.
on the one hand, we need to lay a solid foundation. from variety selection and breeding to ecological cultivation, standardized planting, and then to deep processing and fine processing, we need to consolidate the basic foundation of zhejiang's traditional chinese medicine industry. on the other hand, we need to seize the opportunity of healthy consumption, give full play to the advantages of our province's innovation, capital, market and other factors, cross-border integration to open up new markets, promote "zhejiang-made good medicines" into the lives of more consumers, and expand new horizons for traditional chinese medicine consumption.
behind a chinese herbal medicine is an extremely long industrial chain. for a long time, the chinese medicine industry has been managed by multiple departments, with different departments managing different links in the chain. the long-term development of the chinese medicine industry in the future is inseparable from the innovation of the top-level architecture and management system and mechanism. recently, the provincial health commission and nine other departments jointly issued the "zhejiang province traditional chinese medicine full chain traceability system management measures (trial)", which made useful attempts in management innovation, effectively guaranteed the quality of chinese medicine, promoted the high quality and high price of chinese medicine pieces, and helped the high-quality development of the chinese medicine industry in our province.
i believe that in the future, with the injection of vitality such as management innovation, technological empowerment, scenario innovation, and cross-border integration, zhejiang's traditional chinese medicine industry will open up a broader market.
(the author is the secretary-general of zhejiang traditional chinese medicine industry association)
"please indicate the source when reprinting"
