The way to the healthy Development of traditional Chinese Medicine Industry

In January this year, the Ministry of Commerce issued the Notice on Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Modern Logistics System of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Circular requires local commercial authorities to promote the establishment of a modern logistics system for traditional Chinese medicinal materials, promote the modernization of the circulation of traditional Chinese medicinal materials, and improve the quality and safety assurance capability of traditional Chinese medicinal materials.

The Circular clearly defines the overall goal of initially forming a modern logistics system of traditional Chinese medicinal materials integrating harvesting, origin processing, packaging, storage and transportation by 2020, and puts forward six main tasks: first, to build a processing base for traditional Chinese medicinal materials industry; second, to standardize the packaging of traditional Chinese medicinal materials; third, to build a centralized storage and distribution network; fourth, to promote and apply modern logistics management and technology; fifth, to improve the supporting logistics service functions of the professional market of traditional Chinese medicinal materials; Sixth, strengthen and enlarge the storage logistics enterprise of traditional Chinese medicinal materials.

The Chinese Medicine Storage Branch of China Storage Association was officially established in May 2014. As the only industry organization in the logistics field of traditional Chinese medicine in the industry, the Branch played an important role in the drafting process of the Notice on Promoting the Construction of Modern Logistics System of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued by the Ministry of Commerce.

How to understand the significance of the Notice to the industry and how to actively act in order to implement the Notice, our reporter interviewed the responsible person of the Chinese herbal medicine storage branch.

Reporter: The Notice is the first time issued by the Ministry of Commerce for the logistics of traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Why do government departments attach so much importance to the logistics development of an industry?

Responsible person: The promulgation of the Notice is mainly aimed at the outstanding problems existing in the logistics of traditional Chinese medicinal materials at present. At present, the overall situation of Chinese herbal medicine logistics in China is still in a relatively backward state: the Chinese herbal medicine industry is small and scattered, and the processing, packaging and storage of origin are basically completed by the vast number of pharmaceutical farmers and individual merchants; The warehouse is dominated by residential houses; The operation is mainly manual; The maintenance is mainly based on sulfur fumigation; Compared with industrial consumer goods, the logistics situation of Chinese herbal medicines lags behind 20 years, and compared with fruits and vegetables and other agricultural products (000061, stock bar), it lags behind 10 years.

First of all, the logistics of traditional Chinese medicine should start from the initial processing of origin. This is different from the circulation and processing of industrial consumer goods. The circulation processing of industrial consumer goods is completed in the warehouse before delivery, while the origin processing of traditional Chinese medicinal materials is completed after harvesting and before warehousing. At present, there are problems such as "road exposure" and sulfur fumigation due to scattered processing by pharmaceutical farmers, which should be gradually organized by Chinese herbal medicine management enterprises and logistics enterprises, and the initial processing base and storage facilities of origin should be constructed as a whole.

Secondly, the logistics mode of traditional Chinese medicine should adapt to the physiological characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine, and the logistics of traditional Chinese medicine must have the maintenance function. This is different from industrial consumer goods logistics. At present, industrial consumer goods basically do not need maintenance; and fruits and vegetables preservation technology is also different, fruits and vegetables in the cold storage on the line. Traditional Chinese medicinal materials are easy to grow insects, moldy and oily, but there are many varieties, and the market prices vary greatly. Only expensive and rare medicinal materials are suitable for cold storage. Bulk medicinal materials are generally stored in normal temperature warehouses or cool warehouses, which has a maintenance technical problem. Sulfur and aluminum phosphide fumigation shall be gradually eliminated, and scientific and environmentally friendly technologies such as modified atmosphere maintenance shall be applied.

Thirdly, the logistics mode of traditional Chinese medicine should also adapt to the planting and circulation mode of traditional Chinese medicine and its quality assurance requirements. The logistics of traditional Chinese medicine must undertake the functions of quality detection, recording and tracing of traditional Chinese medicine. This is different from industrial consumer goods and other agricultural products logistics. Because traditional Chinese medicinal materials are planted scattered by the vast number of pharmaceutical farmers and managed by the vast number of individual merchants, there are many transactions in the circulation of traditional Chinese medicinal materials and many enterprises involved. In order to guarantee the quality of traditional Chinese medicine in circulation, logistics enterprises must undertake the functions of detection, recording and tracing of traditional Chinese medicine, not only detecting and recording the appearance of traditional Chinese medicine (color, smell, mildew, insect condition, etc.), but also detecting and recording the internal quality of traditional Chinese medicine (moisture, impurities, total ash, component content, pesticide residue, heavy metal, sulfur dioxide residue, etc.), and must use information system to carry out the whole process of logistics management.