The ups and downs of Chinese herbal medicine prices have to be established

In the past two years, the prices of various Chinese herbal medicines have staged a rapid increase. Since the second half of this year, Chinese herbal medicines prices have “spilled down” and have continued to fall. Some herbs currently have only 5% to 10% of their prices at the highest prices.

In the market changes such as "roller coaster"-like changes, the entire Chinese herbal medicine industry has been severely affected. In such a market change, no one can be a winner from a drug company to a distributor, from a Chinese Herbal Piece Company to a consumer. The establishment of market stability mechanisms to prevent the ups and downs of Chinese herbal medicine prices has become an urgent issue.

Market conditions are like "roller coasters"

"Now the market is basically equal to returning the portion of the money earned in the past two years to the market." In the store of Yaocheng Avenue, Anguo City, Hebei Province, Zhang Zhang, who runs Chinese herbal medicines, stared at the computer and played cards. , While saying that many Chinese herbal medicines are now lowering their prices, the market price of some categories has fallen even lower than the purchase price. "How much will you have to lose?"

Lao Zhang was in his early 40s this year, and he has been operating Chinese herbal medicines in the Anguo market for more than 10 years. He said that in the past three years, the entire herbal medicine market was a drama, but now it is still not clear what the outcome will be.

In 2009, Zhang Zhang looked at the price of yam, which began to rise from less than 4 yuan per kilogram. Many of his peers purchased a large amount of goods. He also followed a ton. I did not expect that in less than half a month, the price of yam had risen to about 20 yuan per kilogram. Lao Zhang sold all the yam drugs in the warehouse and suddenly earned more than 10,000 yuan.

After Lao Zhang sold the yam, the price of yam continued to soar. Lao Zhang re-stocked, pressed the goods, waiting for the price to climb and sell. In the following two years, the price of yam has soared to more than 30 yuan per kilogram in 2009 and more than 50 yuan per kilogram in 2010. Lao Zhang had many purchases and shipments, and naturally earned a lot of money.

Earlier this year, Lao Zhang bought 5 tons of Chinese yam at a price of more than RMB 30 per kilogram. Because it is expected that the price of yam can continue to exceed 50 yuan per kilogram, or even higher, Lao Zhang has been pressing the goods in the warehouse. What Lao Zhang did not expect was that in the past two months, the market of yam has been falling all the way. On November 6th, the goods price of the Yihua market at the Anguo market was 11.5 yuan to 12 yuan.

In Chuzhou, Anhui Province, which is the largest distribution center for Chinese herbal medicines in China, it is also facing the embarrassing situation of Chinese herbal medicines prices “roller coasters”. In February last year, the market price for white goods was around RMB 10 to RMB 15 per kilogram. This price has remained stable for a long period of time. In December last year, the former price in the market in Zhangzhou rose from RMB 30 to RMB 35 per kilogram. At that time, many dealers thought it was the highest price. Surprisingly, in May of this year, the price in Baiji suddenly broke 100, and the net price of the market reached 135-150 yuan per kilogram. Since then, the price of white rose all the way, and the net price in July reached 210 yuan per kilogram.

However, in the subsequent price of "drawing large quantities of Chinese herbal medicines," White was not spared. In September, as new goods went on sale, the supply increased, and the price before white fell to 35 to 40 yuan per kilogram. The latest quotation shows that on November 12th, the price of the Baiqin system in Zhangzhou market was RMB 13 to RMB 14 per kilogram.

According to the monitoring data of the Chinese Medicine Association, in 2010, 84% of the 537 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines in the national market went up in price, with an average increase of 109%, and 96 varieties with more than 100% increase. Until the first half of this year, the gains in Chinese herbal medicines have not been eliminated. By the second half of the year, the market conditions of Chinese herbal medicines suddenly “turned back and forth”. The monitoring results of the national herbal medicine market price index (the KLCI 200) released by the Chinese Herbal Medicine Association's official website showed that the KLCI 200 gradually dropped from its highest level of 2917.81 points at the end of June to 2213.77 from November 14 to 20th. Point, the downward trend is obvious.

When both upstream and downstream victims were interviewed in the Anguo market, the reporter encountered Zhang Daan, a trader who purchased medicinal herbs from other countries. “Is this change in the market affecting your acquisition of medicinal herbs?” the reporter asked.

Zhang Daan told reporters that it is now obviously more difficult to acquire medicines than it was a while ago. In the past when the market was good, Zhang Daan also went to Anguo's rural areas to look for drug farmers directly. Generally, farmers and farmers are willing to sell him medicine directly, even if the price is a few cents cheaper than the market price. While the price dropped again and again during this period, Zhang Daan was also very cautious in the acquisition.

When the market price goes down and Zhang Daan's offer is even lower, the drug and peasants are naturally less refreshed. Zhang Daan said that he can understand the feelings of the drug farmers. “This one rises and falls, and the income of an acre of land inside and outside the country is much poorer.”

"How much can you pay for?" the reporter asked.

"A mu of land can produce about 2,000 kilograms of Chinese yam. When it was last year's highest, it was a kilogram of forty or fifty dollars. Now a kilogram is only ten dollars, and some are worse. One kilogram can only sell a few dollars. "Zhang Daan said.

The reporter learned that many traders had previously made losses at a high price, as long as prices fell slightly. Vendors are unwilling to cut prices to sell the bulk goods. The enthusiasm for acquiring medicines from drug farmers is naturally not raised. Some traders simply close their doors. With the expectation of the fall in prices of Chinese herbal medicines, pharmaceutical companies will be more cautious about the recovery of medicinal materials.

Due to the lack of forecast on the market trend, many companies purchased a large amount of medicinal herbs when the price of Chinese herbal medicines rose. For example, some raw material companies whose inventory of raw materials has been tightened are more cautious when it comes to recycling Chinese herbal medicines. They are no longer like the bulk recovery of Chinese herbal medicines in the past. The wait-and-see attitudes and cautions of Chinese Herbal Pieces companies have shifted the risk of falling Chinese herbal medicine prices to dealers of medicine farmers and Chinese herbal medicines.

“From the current situation, drug dealers, distributors, and drug companies are all victims of this wave of market volatility. If the order of the entire industry chain cannot be smoothly operated, the interests of end-consumers will eventually be harmed.” Guo Fanli, a researcher at the Investment Consultant Industry Research Center, said that when the price of Chinese herbal medicines rises, the price of Chinese herbal medicines will naturally rise. Now that the price of Chinese herbal medicines has fallen, Chinese Herbal Pieces companies will be more cautious, and the price of cut pieces is unlikely to be adjusted. End consumers still have to bear the cost of Chinese herbal medicines.

Urgently needed to establish a market stability mechanism Guo Fanli analyzed that since 2009, the prices of Chinese herbal medicines have continued to rise. The reasons include the impact of weather factors. Some Chinese herbal medicines were reduced or even lost in the same year. Under the pressure of inflation, the cost of Chinese herbal medicines has increased. But what is more important is the hoarding of speculative capital, which further amplifies the trend of price increases brought about by factors such as weather and costs. Once the price increase is strengthened, the distributors will follow suit and follow up the goods, further pushing up the market price.

Since the second half of this year, relevant state departments have issued policies to stabilize the prices of Chinese herbal medicines, organized and investigated illegal activities of some operators to speculate on the prices of Chinese herbal medicines such as Codonopsis, and conducted investigations and investigations on some herbal medicine markets, requiring strict inspections of hoarding, hype, and Hold up the price of herbs. With the increase in the supply of new medicinal materials, the tight supply and demand situation has eased, prompting the prices of Chinese herbal medicines to begin to fall.

“It can be said that policy factors have a more constraining effect on the speculation of hoarding Chinese herbal medicines. The price of Chinese herbal medicines will continue to fall. The current trend is basically in line with the law of Chinese herbal medicines for a three-year cycle,” said Guo Fanli.

Some experts pointed out that because many drug farmers can not judge market information such as market demand for Chinese herbal medicines, when the price of Chinese herbal medicines is bullish, blindly expand the planting scale of medicinal herbs; when medicine prices are bearish, the scale of planting is also reduced. This information is asymmetric, It also caused the unbalanced supply and demand of Chinese herbal medicines to a great extent, which affected the price fluctuations.

Experts suggest that relevant departments should speed up research and introduce relevant measures to maintain the Chinese herbal medicine market. On the one hand, we should speed up the construction of Chinese herbal medicines reserve mechanism to effectively prevent malicious speculation and weather and other factors from bringing down the risk of reducing the supply of Chinese herbal medicines; on the other hand, we should speed up the construction of electronic information platforms for the Chinese herbal medicine trade, and plant them on a large scale. Households and distributors publish planting area, market price and other information, so that growers and dealers can understand the market conditions in time and avoid follow-up operations. In addition, it is necessary to speed up the exploration of pricing guidance pricing mechanism for Chinese herbal medicines, formulate a reasonable reference system for price standards, and increase the crackdown on malicious counterfeiting and disruption of market order; intensify training, improve the quality of medicine farmers, and cultivate technology. New farmers will be planted; through the guidance and encouragement of growers to form professional cooperatives, to increase the individual farmers' ability to resist risks and ability to judge the market.