The market demand for sour palms has increased significantly in recent years, while the production of sour palms has been reduced by a number of factors, including the natural environment, and the price of sour palms has risen every year since 2020。
Today, however, the price of sour palms per kilo of $1,000 is still “too abnormal” in the view of lee, the sour palm processor who has been in business for over 30 years. According to li, the price of sour palms has risen considerably, and in addition to the reduction in production and the increase in sales, there is also a common reason for the increase in drug prices over the last two years, which is the high level of social investment。
According to li, the zanghong county of hebei province, which is the country's main processing site for acid palms, has even loaned millions and tens of millions of dollars to purchase acid dates, which has also led directly to intense competition for the acquisition of acid dates. "they had money, and they fired the price."
In fact, not only is it sour-treed, but the price of various chinese medicines has increased in the last two years, and the price of some of these drugs has even increased tenfold. On 8 august this year, the chinese drug 200 index, published by the chinese pharmaceutical information industry portal, aimed at reflecting the overall price and variability of chinese medicine markets in the country, reached a high of 3604, an increase of 35. 02 per cent over the same period last year, creating a new high for nearly 16 years。
This has also attracted the attention of mti. In the second half of this year, the guangdong medical industry association and the association for the promotion of the drug and drinking industry in chuzhou city announced an abnormal increase in the price of chinese medicines, stating that the main reasons for the increase in the price of chinese medicines were the imbalance between supply and demand and speculation. It highlights the large amount of previous stock build-up capital entering the job and the many links involved in hoarding。
“the chinese medicine, which is not so big as a market plate, can't use that much money, for example, a chinese medicine breed of 500 million dollars, but when a lot of money comes in and $5 billion goes to the market, the price of the medicine is raised, so there is a huge increase in the price of the chinese medicine.” however, he believed that prices should slow down as speculators made money and withdrew money。
Wang zhuang, a three-generation chinese pharmaceutical dealer, also told the chinese entrepreneur that the prices of medicines in china were abnormal in the past two years. “there is a rule in the industry that increases by three years, drops by three years, increases by three years, increases by three years, drops by three years, increases by more than three years and drops by few varieties.”
As a result of the increase in the price of chinese medicine, wang’s business was not easy, “many of the people who came to buy it are expensive”. Wang xin hoped that the price of chinese medicine would not be too high so that the population could afford it。
One price a day
Li chi has witnessed changes in the purchase price of sour dates this year。
"one morning, the sour date was four pounds, and at night it was five pounds." li jia stated that since late august, sour dates had been at almost one price a day。
When the date is so high, li can pick 20 or 30 pounds a day, sell 200 pounds a day, and li says, "it's better than working." li jing earned $34,000 a month on acid dates, which exceeds the monthly income of most people in local county towns。
Source: respondents
The production of sour dates was too low last year, li chi did not go to pick sour dates and there was no sour dates fever. The high production this year, but the price of sour dates is still high, which also makes li chi puzzled。
Acid dates are known to be mainly in hebei, liaoning, henan, shanxi, shaanxi, shandong, and are currently predominantly wild. Owing to its agricultural by-products, which are affected by weather, natural disasters and so on, this year's harvest is likely to decline next year. Liu guang told the chinese entrepreneurs that last year was a good harvest of acid dates, such as shubei and shanxi, and this year was a good harvest in liaoxi。
It is generally dependent on the quality of the dates. However, an average of one kilogram of acid dates can be processed at a price of $8 per kilo of acid dates, up to $800 per kilogram of acid dates, and more dates may be needed for early acquisition。
The price of sour palms has also risen in recent years. According to data from the china medicines network, for example, the market situation in zhuzhou, one of the four major drugs, shows a slight annual change in the price of sour palms in the two years leading up to 2020, with fluctuations of around $200 per kilogram. Starting in 2020, the production of sour dates has decreased and the price of sour dates has increased as a result of natural disasters such as rain. The price of sour palms began to rise year by year, from over 200 to 450 yuan per kilogram, to 980 yuan per kilogram by september 2022, when the sour palms were new. This year has been largely maintained at last year's prices, but also slightly higher。
According to li, the increase in the price of sour palms over the years is due to a number of factors: lower production, which, because of the predominantly wild nature of the sour dates, affects the production of sour palms by weather, natural disasters, etc.; higher labour costs, which, if purchased at low prices, do not give the population the incentive to collect; and an increase in sour palm sales in recent years, which, because of the dual use of medicines, could be used because of the stress of life and the need for daily management。
The processor's got more money
In li's view, the large increase in sour palm is due to the fact that, in addition to the small yield, another important reason is the increase in the amount of money in the hands of the sour date processors。
Processors are an important link in the sour palm industry. As a processor, li will buy acid dates from across the country for processing and then sell them to pharmacists — people from all over the country sell them to local purchase points — and li will buy them from local purchase points, then take them back and dry them, dry them, and then sell them to pharmacists。
Source: visual china
At present, there are three main acid palm processing sites in the country, namely, zangdong county in hebei province, necho county, and sandong jeiningven upper county. Hebei province, zangdong county, is now the country's largest acid palm processing hub, accounting for 70 per cent of the market share. According to lee, the number of acid date processors in zanghongzhou amounted to over 2,000。
In recent years, zangdong county, hebei province, has also been developing the sour palm industry. Lee’s announcement is that as a result of local encouragement of the sour palm industry, bank loans are strong, and some of the sour date processors are able to borrow tens of millions of dollars, and they have money in their hands, and some of their trip tickets. “we can only charge the price a little, and the cost is not low.”。
It was also reported in the financial times that since 2022, china's zongol branch has been actively tailoring its special financial services programme to the local acid-tree industry, with a view to solving the problems of storage and production for villagers. To date, the bank has invested $5,752 million in individual inclusive business loans, benefiting 161 villagers。
The circle of friends of a sour date buyer in liaoning also shows that most of the sour dates she received were bought by processors in zangdong county。
In september of this year, hebei zhang county also held a conference on quality development of the acid palm industry. More than 20 home-based pharmacist enterprises have signed strategic cooperation agreements with zhangzhou, including the qin pharmaceutical industry, the shengwei pharmaceutical industry, tianjin red day, shanxi zhendong, the chinese pharmaceutical group, the mangusa hall in anhuizhou, and the golden pharmacy industry in zhang tai state。
Despite the huge increase in sour palms, li has stated that we did not earn much from the increase in the price of the sour palms. “we could earn 10 dollars for the sour palms that cost 100 dollars per kilogram, and now we make only 10-20 dollars for the sour palms that cost 8,900 or 1,000 dollars per kilo.” li kuo guang told the chinese entrepreneurs that “costs are too high to be profitable and difficult to do”
They're worried about the future
It's not just sour palms, but a lot of chinese medicine has gone up in the last two years. According to the zhexican securities research, between the beginning of 2021 and june 2023, prices rose by 52 per cent and party prices by 372 per cent, among common chinese medicines。
Especially since the beginning of the year, prices of some of the popular medicines have fluctuated exceptionally. In the first half of this year, there was a sharp increase in the price of generic chinese medicines such as home, party membership, white arts and glycerine. Also, according to reports issued by the relevant industry associations in june this year, the wholesale markets for chinese medicines in anhuizhou, hebei anxian state, sichuan chengdu and guangxi yulin increased by more than 50 per cent over the same period last year, by more than 200 conventional varieties, by more than 200 per cent over 25 commonly used bulk medicines, and by four to nine times the price of individual varieties。
This year, china's chinese drug association has also launched an initiative for the chinese pharmaceutical industry: it is firmly opposed to, and in no way participates in, any kind of illegal or even illegal activities that disrupt the market for medicines, such as the lifting and manipulation of drug prices and speculation。
It's not just chinese medicine。
In april this year, a hundred-year-old chinese pharmaceutical company, zilong yu, was bought by the japanese drug company xianjinmura at a cost of yen4. 9 billion (approximately yen250 million), which has attracted the attention of netizens. Three months later, the company was repossessed by the state in shanxi province. The chinese pharmaceutical industry has not been given the attention it deserves, and there is also concern about the fallout from the chinese medicine industry, namely, china’s origin, korea’s flower, japan’s outcome。
Over the past two years, however, there has been a gradual increase in domestic emphasis on chinese medicine, and policies have encouraged the development of the pharmaceutical industry, which has also led to significant capital flows into the chinese pharmaceutical industry. Data from the aids counselling service show that china's chinese drug market reached 17. 8 billion yuan in 2022 and is expected to exceed 200 billion yuan in 2024。
However, the abnormally large rise in chinese medicine is not conducive to the healthy development of the industry. As the cost of chinese medicines rises, the cost of the production and distribution of some pharmaceutical products is severely reversed and, at the consumer level, unaffordable。
As the chinese drug market has been too volatile in recent years, wang qian has not had stocks for two years, “i have not acquired sour dates this year, because they are expensive and priceless”. Wang jing told the chinese entrepreneurs that there were also people who were still hoarding, but they would also fear that they would fall into their hands and not sell them。
"li chi, wang zhu"
