Health & Beauty

At the China-Brazil International Traditional Medicine Trade Cooperation Seminar held online a few days ago, experts from China and Brazil conducted in-depth discussions on the pharmaceutical trade between the two countries and believed that the trade potential between the two sides in the pharmaceutical field could be further explored.

Experts pointed out that in 2019, China imported 195,000 tons of Chinese medicinal materials from all over the world, a year-on-year increase of 62.78% and doubled the number of imports in 2017. The Chinese medicinal materials imported by China are mainly rare and expensive varieties in China, such as longan, American ginseng, frankincense, myrrh, dragon blood, velvet antler, ginseng, licorice, Ghana seeds, turmeric, saffron, cumin, etc.

At present, China's demand for plant resources is increasing day by day. From 2010 to 2019, China's annual import volume of Chinese medicinal materials increased from 47,000 tons to 195,000 tons, with a compound annual growth rate of 15%, and annual imports from US$60 million to US$360 million, with a compound annual growth rate of 20% , Far surpassing the growth rate of Chinese medicinal materials exports.

Experts said that from 2010 to 2019, the pharmaceutical trade between China and Pakistan has maintained a good momentum of development. In ten years, the trade volume has soared from 9.03 million U.S. dollars to 53.38 million U.S. dollars. China’s exports to Brazil increased from 4.97 million U.S. dollars to 36.86 million U.S. dollars; China’s imports from Brazil increased from 4.05 million U.S. dollars to 16.52 million U.S. dollars.

They believe that Brazil has an extremely rich variety of plants. There are 40,000 higher plants alone. Currently, only cloves, peppers and chrysanthemums are exported to the Chinese market. Compared with China’s rapidly increasing import demand each year, Brazil’s future exports The market prospects are promising.

Experts pointed out that due to China’s insufficient domestic medicinal resources, land and labor costs, and other reasons, many domestically-originated varieties, such as fangfeng, turmeric, beidougen, and pangasius, are also imported in large quantities to supplement domestic demand for medicines, and even some domestic Enterprises take the initiative to "go out" and build Chinese herbal medicine planting bases abroad. Brazil's good natural resources are an important foundation for mutual trade complementarity. In the future, plant products will also become the main export products of Brazil to China.

According to data from the General Administration of Customs of China, from 2017 to 2019, China's total import and export trade of traditional Chinese medicine products maintained a steady growth trend. In 2019, China's total import and export trade of traditional Chinese medicine products reached US$6.174 billion, of which total exports reached US$4.019 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.8%; total imports reached US$2.155 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%.

Experts from China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products, China Association for the Promotion of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing Institute of Chinese Medicine and other domestic institutions, as well as the Economic Development Department of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Minas Apiculture Federation, etc. Representatives of Brazilian institutions participated in the China-Brazil International Traditional Medicine Trade Cooperation Seminar.