Yunnan Maca industry, will it be killed this time?

Look at each other can not bear to send, bleak twilight tide flat. The language is more hand in hand, Yue Ming Zhou Zhu Sheng.

Wang Wei's "two pieces of lack of title"

Lead author: Xiao Ming (personal WeChat account yunnanshuwenning)

Recently, Shandong, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have launched special crackdowns to crack down on illegal additions and claims in three types of food, including health food, wine and Maca products.

Specially named "Maca products", which is simply a disaster for the Maca industry in Yunnan, which has fallen into the cold winter.

Special rectification

This special rectification action, originated from the document issued by the General Office of the State Food and Drug Administration at the end of May, "notice on carrying out the special control of illegal claims in three types of food, such as health food [Food and Drug Administration Office Food Supervision III (2016) 68]".

The circular requires that the focus of the crackdown is on health food, preparation of wine (mainly wine containing traditional Chinese medicine ingredients), Maca products and other three types of food, and the content of governance is the illegal addition of drugs and illegal publicity of efficacy.

The problem of illegal publicity efficacy is mainly reflected in the illegal propaganda of disease prevention or treatment functions in product labels, brochures and gift brochures, the behavior of publicizing health care functions without permission for health food, and the behavior of falsely exaggerating the efficacy of health products and issuing health food advertisements without examination and approval in the process of advertising.

And the illegal added drugs to be examined mainly include sibutramine, ephedrine phenolphthalein, sildenafil, tadanafil, metformin hydrochloride, rosiglitazone maleate, pioglitazone hydrochloride, phenformin hydrochloride, glibenclamide, glipizide, lovastatin, amlodipine and nifedipine.

Among the above-mentioned drugs, some are weight-loss drugs, some are diabetes drugs that reduce blood sugar, and some are drugs for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. "Sildenafil" and "Tadanafei" are very special, the former is commonly known as "Viagra"Viagra", the latter is also known as "Sirius". Both are drugs to treat erectile dysfunction in men.

The scope of this rectification will be not only in the above-mentioned provinces, but also in the whole country.

Maca products on an e-commerce platform

The Road of Maca

Shandong proposed that pressed candies, solid drinks, convenience foods and other products made from Maca (Maca) would be severely cracked down. This has covered almost all Maca products.

Maca, native to Peru in South America, belongs to the cruciferous family as well as radish. In Peru, it is just a common vegetable eaten by people and animals.

In 2002, an enterprise in Lijiang introduced the Maca planting pilot project, of which the most successful one was at the foot of Yulong Snow Mountain in Lijiang, which is about 3500 meters above sea level. Its geographical environment, climate, soil and other natural conditions are very similar to the environment of the Peruvian Andes. For many years since then, Maca has been experimenting and promoting in Lijiang, and its fame is mostly concentrated in the local area.

Until 2011, things changed. In May of that year, the Ministry of Health approved "Makha Powder" as a "new resource food". This is a great stimulus to the government, enterprises and farmers, which set off a boom in the Maca market.

In 2013, the people's Government of Yunnan Province and the people's Government of Lijiang City made Majia a key biological industry. In Maca, where no one was interested, the market price of dried fruit jumped to hundreds of yuan per kilogram, and the peak price of the highest quality dried fruit was as high as thousands of yuan per kilogram.

The author entered the word "Maca" into the Yunnan Industrial and Commercial Information system, and a total of 51 enterprises jumped out, most of which were established after 2012. The word "Maca" does not appear in the firm, but the Yunnan enterprises that actually operate Maca products should be magnified at least tenfold on this basis, and there may be more than 500.

In addition to countless small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals, the Maca industry has also ushered in the favor of giants. In addition to local Yunnan Baiyao and other enterprises, Maotai, Wuliangye, Luzhou laojiao, Baiyunshan, Kangmei Pharmaceutical, Xiangxue Pharmaceutical and other foreign famous enterprises have also entered the Maca industry, launching Maca wine, Maca tablet candy, beverages and other products.

Announcement of the former Ministry of Health approving Makha Powder as a New Resource Food

Plant Viagra

The earliest research on Maca in China was published by Xiao Peigen, academician of the Department of Medicine and Health Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Institute of Medicinal plants of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, entitled "Maca-a health food that has attracted worldwide attention." This paper points out that Maca may have a good regulating effect on the recovery of sub-health people, especially in improving endocrine.

Experiments show that Maca can enhance physical strength, reduce stress and enhance sexual function. However, this conclusion is only reflected in the animal experiments of male rats, and no human clinical experiments have been done.

Although "new resource food" is only food, not medicine or health care products, it does not affect the hype of the merchants. The topic of sex, which China is least adept at public discussion but is very keen on in private, has become the best packaging stunt in the industry.

And the most popular saying is that "men can't stand eating women, women can't stand eating men, men and women can't stand eating beds together, and planting in the field can't stand it." This joke was originally used by northerners to brag about iron bar yam, but it was used by shrewd Maca merchants as a joke for word-of-mouth marketing.

What's more, he even made up the rumor that Maca, as a Peruvian national gift, was presented by its supreme leader to the supreme leader of China.

Therefore, anyone who has heard of "Maca" knows the title of "plant Viagra". In the promotion of businesses, to enhance immunity, anti-tumor, regulation of endocrine, alleviate prostate disease, anti-depression and other functions.

Although the efficacy of Maca in improving sexual ability has yet to be studied and proved, profit-seeking businessmen have long thought of other ways to demonstrate the effectiveness of Maca. The easiest way is to add Viagra powder to Maca products, that is, sildenafil or tadanafil.

If you open the search engine and type "Maca + Viagra Powder", you can see more media reports, so we won't talk about it in detail here.

Maca fresh fruit

Illegal addition

Last year, in organizing the law enforcement inspection of provincial food and drug regulatory departments, the State Administration of Food and Drug found that some health wine and liquor production enterprises had illegal addition behavior. At the end of July of that year, the State Food and Drug Administration issued a notice on the illegal addition of 69 kinds of products in 51 health wine and wine preparation enterprises.

According to the circular, a total of 51 enterprises have illegally added chemical substances such as sildenafil (commonly known as "Viagra") to 69 kinds of health wine and prepared wine. And in the product name, logo, label expressly or implied aphrodisiac, sexual health and other functions; 27 kinds of products suspected of illegally adding sildenafil under investigation, involving 25 nominal enterprises There are eight kinds of products suspected of illegally adding tadalafil, thioidinafil, Vardenafil, Hongdenafil and other chemicals under investigation, involving seven nominal enterprises.

In addition to traditional sparkling wines such as deer whip wine, pilose antler wine, Cordyceps sinensis wine and heteroserpent whip wine, maka wine is also a hard-hit area. In addition to enterprises in Northeast China, Sichuan, Hunan and other places, Yunnan also has enterprises on the list.

Maca products companies are also often on the list in previous notices from the Food and Drug Administration on false advertisements or spot checks on food safety supervision.

Last year's "circular" also required that all health wine and liquor production enterprises should carry out self-inspection, and local food and drug regulatory departments should immediately organize special supervision and inspection on the production and operation of health wine and wine preparation.

This year's special rectification campaign has been upgraded again, expanding the scope of rectification to three major categories: health food, wine preparation and Maca products.

Huangmaka dried fruit

The pain of Maca

Lijiang is the largest production base of Maca in China. 80% of the total Maca in China is produced in Lijiang.

For Lijiang, which is located in the cold mountain area and the economy is backward, Maca is extremely coordinated with the local natural environment, and the income is short, flat and fast, so it has become a rare local cash crop. The Lijiang municipal government regards Maca as an important local industry and even includes Maca in the government's plan to turn Maca into a $10 billion industry by 2020.

According to the data released by Lijiang Biological Resources Development and Innovation Office, the planting area of maca in Lijiang was no more than 2000 mu before 2011, less than 17000 mu in 2012, 70, 000 mu in 2014, and more than 140000 mu in 2015, exceeding the annual planned area of 80, 000 mu.

And the surrounding Zhaotong, Qujing, Liangshan and other areas, also appeared a large planting area. What's more, Gansu, Qinghai and Xizang have also become important producing areas.

The rapid expansion of planting area has led to a sharp increase in production, which has led to an oversupply of Maca and a sharp drop in prices. In the vegetable market in Kunming, fresh fruits worth more than 10 yuan and 20 yuan per kilogram can be seen everywhere. In Lijiang, the main producing area, the price of Maca fresh fruit has fallen to a few yuan per kilogram. Many farmers even rot the mature Maca in the fields because the sales revenue is not enough to cover the cost of harvesting.

Even so, Maca's upstream growers and the government are pinning their hopes on downstream Maca products companies, hoping that downstream expansion will ease the upstream oversupply.

However, the special crackdown by the State Administration of Food and Drug across the country will undoubtedly eliminate a large number of downstream Maca products enterprises and break the only hope. Even if big-name enterprises do not illegally add, illegal publicity, but the downstream deep processing industry demand for upstream primary products is bound to decline sharply.

Then the question arises: will the Maca industry in Yunnan be destroyed?

Rights statement: original content of Yunnan Meicai think tank, all rights reserved, violators will be prosecuted.

Lead author: Xiao Ming (WeChat account yunnanshuwenning)

Legal adviser: Hu Wenlin, lawyer of Dacheng Law firm (WeChat account ynhuwenlin)