recently
The topic of skyrocketing prices of Chinese herbal medicines
Concern again
Commonly used medicinal herb Atractylodes
Accused of "the price of gold soared wildly"
Niche medicinal herb cat's claw
Also in just 10 months
The price soared 10 times
A Chinese medicine store on Qingping Road, Guangzhou
Staff said
"Atractylodes is now 120 yuan / catty,
Last year, it was only more than 30 yuan per catty
The price has been rising for a long time,
Don't buy it yet, it's too expensive right now. ”
One is from Taiyuan, Shanxi
An old Chinese medicine practitioner who has been practicing for nearly 30 years said
"The price of commonly used Chinese medicinal materials continues to rise,
The patients are almost unable to eat,
Originally prescribed 12 flavor medicines,
Now it's down to 9 flavors. ”
After a decline in the second half of 2023, since the beginning of 2024, the price increase tide of Chinese herbal medicines has a "comeback" trend.
On April 22, the total price index of Chinese herbal medicines was 2247.77 points, up 14.5% from the same period last year, a record high.
The picture comes from Kangmei Chinese Herbal Medicine
"Now Chinese herbal medicines have a price a day, and we can only buy them one pound at a time. On April 21, an old Chinese medicine doctor who has been practicing in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province for nearly 30 years told reporters.
In his opinion, traditional Chinese medicine survives with cheap and high efficiency, but now the price of commonly used Chinese medicinal materials continues to rise, and patients are almost unable to afford it.
The above-mentioned old Chinese medicine doctor listed that the prices of angelica, white peony and atractylodes are rising, and angelica and white peony were only 60 yuan/kg in previous years, but now they have risen to more than 200 yuan/kg.
Atractylodes is even more impressive. On April 21, on social platforms, topics such as "Atractylodes Crazy Rise Over Gold" and "Atractylodes Macrocephalus is now called Alchemylomy" attracted attention.
The reporter noticed that the price of atractylodes has been soaring since last year.
Mr. Wang (pseudonym), a distributor of medicinal materials from the largest professional market of Chinese herbal medicines in southwest China, told reporters that the price of atractylodes has increased 10 times faster than when it was the cheapest, and it has risen 6 times in just one year, "At this time in 2023, it will sell for 30 yuan/kg, and by the end of 2023, it will rise to about 80 yuan per kilogram, and after the beginning of this year, it will rise to 130 yuan per kilogram, and the current market price is between 170-200 yuan per kilogram." ”
Before the price increase of atractylodes attracted attention, the niche Chinese medicinal material cat's claw also experienced a round of skyrocketing. According to the data of the Chinese herbal medicine world, the price of cat's claw grass has remained between 50-80 yuan/kg all year round, and since June 2023, the price has suddenly skyrocketed by 10 times, and as of April 22, the price of cat's claw grass has reached 800 yuan/kg.
The picture comes from the Chinese herbal medicine world
"Since last year, the situation has been somewhat abnormal, in the past, only a few Chinese herbal medicines rose and fell, and now it is a large-scale general rise. The above-mentioned Chinese medicine practitioner said.
The rise in the price of Chinese herbal medicines has been transmitted to the terminal, the cost of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions has increased, and the cost of drugs for patients has also increased accordingly. On April 13, a patient posted his prescription, and the price of the medicine at the end of January was about 70 yuan, and by the beginning of April, only a few different herbs were different, and the price had risen to more than 200 yuan.
The above-mentioned TCM also said that now patients feel that the prescription is too expensive, so they can only replace the herbs or reduce the number of flavors, and the original prescription of 12 flavors has now been reduced to 9 flavors.
There are many voices in the industry who mention that the price increase of Chinese herbal medicines is like "beating the drum and passing the flowers", after cat's claw and atractylodes, who will rise next?
In addition to the contradiction between supply and demand of medicinal materials themselves, the reporter noticed that there are many speculators and brokers.
Taking Atractylodes as an example, on the one hand, the supply side is insufficient. Mr. Chen (pseudonym), a grower who has been planting Atractylodes macrocedes in Baoding, Hebei Province for 21 years, told reporters that in recent years, the main producing areas of Atractylodes atractylodes in Anhui, Zhejiang and Zhengzhou, Henan Province, have been affected by disasters and reduced production. He mentioned that he lost more than 1.6 million yuan in planting Atractylodes in 2022, "Many growers can't bear it (don't plant anymore)." ”
"No one planted in a year, the market is still in stock, no one has planted in three years, so you can only consume inventory, the inventory is exhausted, and there is no new production, and the price will go up", Mr. Chen said, in previous years, the total amount of Atractylodes macrocephalus in the Anguo medicinal materials market could reach 4,000-5,000 tons, but this year, the entire market added up to only 30 or 50 tons, which is only 1% of the normal year.
On the other hand, the reporter found that behind the price increase of Atractylodes, there is no shortage of speculators and brokers.
On social platforms, an account from Bozhou, Anhui Province posted a video saying that Atractylodes can be stocked, "Buy some and pull cold storage to put it." On April 22, the reporter learned from a large cold storage manager in Bozhou, Anhui Province, that there are too many Chinese medicinal materials pressed this year, and there is no room for cold storage, and it takes a month and a half to queue.
According to a report by Zhongxin Jingwei, some broker groups advocate that buyers invest in Baizhu to press goods, and use short-term entry and exit speculation to make profits, "one in and one out, about 30,000 yuan per ton." ”
Not only Atractylodes, but also another Chinese medicinal material, Suoyang, has also been "fried" at a high price. Mr. Tao, a traditional Chinese medicine grower in Gansu, once told reporters that after being listed as a national second-class protected wild plant in September 2021, he noticed that a large number of buyers swept away the Suoyang in the production area at a price of about 40 yuan to 45 yuan in less than a month, "there is no one left", and after only a few days, the price rose to about 70 yuan.
Mr. Wang recounted that the speculation of large investors should be very familiar with a variety and have a certain financial strength, and then select the object of speculation according to the distribution, output, cost, annual consumption, how much retail investors have to buy goods, and how much the cost of holding the goods. "In the case of a small inventory, there is a big village that controls the basic source of goods, and the right to speak is in his hands. ”
Source: Red Star News