Leading experts in the natural products industry are predicting that Asia will be the fastest-growing market for organic, herbal and nutraceutical trading for the next five years.
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The increasing global acceptance and modernisation of Asian traditional herbal medicines, especially Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), coupled with the enormous growth in organic farming and worldwide consumer demand for natural products is fuelling demand both in Asia and overseas.
“There is no doubt that Asia stands poised to become a dominant player in the natural products marketplace – the region not only has a voracious consumer market, but is in a position to become the world’s largest exporting region,” said Rick Prill, President of US-based New Hope Natural Media, the leading global media, research and event company in the natural products industry.
“Asia has got to be the most exciting natural products marketplace in the world right now,” Prill added. New Hope and its parent company, Penton Media, will be staging the first annual Natural Products Expo Asia event in Hong Kong in May 2002.
Prill commented that recent moves by Asian governments to step up efforts on regulating the quality of ingredient exports, to achieve standards in line with those of the US and European markets, make the region highly attractive for exporters.
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By GlobalDataIn China, quality standards and the development and regulation of organics and natural products are receiving increasing attention. The Mainland press reported that Chinese President Jiang Zemin listed the development of China’s green food, organic products, and non-polluting food industries, and the overall enhancement of the country’s organic agriculture industry as key priorities for China, in his address of the Central Economic Working Conference in Beijing in late November.
Chinese Government officials also recently announced the establishment of official regulations for the management of the organic food market. The Xinhua News Agency quoted Chinese officials as saying that organic food that does not meet regulations will be banned. China has more than 800 organic enterprises with turnover of US$6.25bn. Meanwhile China’s entry into the WTO has prompted a tightening of its regulations on the nutraceutical and dietary supplements industry.
“The Chinese State Drug Administration (SDA) has made tremendous strides in developing a regulatory framework and enforcement mechanism to prepare the Chinese pharmaceutical and traditional Chinese medicine industries for WTO entry,” according to Daniel Fung, former Solicitor General of Hong Kong and Natural Products Expo Asia 2002 Board Member.
“The new rules have vastly improved the quality of Chinese products, in aiming to make them compliant with the regulations of most world markets. The SDA’s framework will assist to make Chinese products to approximate the quality of pharmaceutical and natural health food products worldwide and enable them to enter the global mainstream of medical and therapeutic treatments. This levels the playing field tremendously,” Fung added.
Matthew Cheng, Chairman of the Natural Products Expo Asia 2002 Advisory Board, commented: “The measures announced by the Chinese Government demonstrate China’s commitment to growing its organic and natural products industries. This is an enormously positive announcement and should be a boon for the Greater Chinese natural products industry.”
Cheng added that Penton and New Hope’s global standards for companies and products will be rigorously imposed at the upcoming Natural Products Expo Asia 2002 to be held from 15-18 May 2002 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
“We have already rejected several companies whose products have not conformed to our standards, but who wanted to exhibit at the event. It’s unfortunate for those companies, but high quality standards are critically important for the overall industry in Asia,” he added.
Penton and New Hope are working in association with the world’s leading standards and certification body for organics, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (iFOAM).
Cheng said that officials from the Chinese Government and other Asian governments will be invited to address a multi-lateral standards summit at the Natural Products Expo Asia conference in Hong Kong next May.
