Ginseng and deer antler velvet are the "two treasures" in the "Three Treasures of Northeast China", which have always been regarded as precious Chinese medicinal materials and nourishing products, and are unique local specialty resources in Northeast China. In recent years, relying on the unique ginseng resources, many places in Northeast China have expanded their characteristic industries, upgraded from planting and breeding to intensive processing, and gradually become large-scale, from seeking new product development to planning and layout of the whole industrial chain, and strive to move towards a 100-billion-level pillar industry.
However, the reporter visited a number of major producing areas in Liaoning Province and Jilin Province and found that while the ginseng industry is growing day by day, there is also a lack of standards and specifications for planting and breeding, products are piled up in the primary raw materials and low-end markets, and the regional brand influence is weak.
In the ginseng city of Northeast China in Huanren County, Liaoning Province, ginseng trading is underway. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee).
The world's ginseng looks at China, and the Chinese ginseng looks at the Northeast.
Approaching the Spring Festival, the reporter walked into a Chinese herbal medicine production workshop in Huanren Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province, where workers were operating machinery and equipment to sell dried ginseng or slices or ground powder, packaging and selling it all over the country. In this small mountain town, the number of farmers engaged in the cultivation, processing and sales of ginseng has reached 280,000 households, and more than 300 registered ginseng enterprises in the county. On the eve of the Spring Festival, ginseng products, as high-end gifts, are selling well in the market, and various companies are also quite busy.
Ginseng and deer antler velvet are edible and medicinal resources developed earlier by the Chinese and continuously utilized. China has been eating ginseng since the Shang Dynasty, and after thousands of years of application, ginseng has won the reputation of "the king of herbs". "The whole body of the deer is a treasure" in ancient times in our country was recognized, the history and culture of the Manchu people breeding sika deer in the Qing Dynasty was carried forward and promoted, the use of deer raw materials to make medicines, tonics and tonics continue to increase, among which the deer can grow repeatedly and take the antler velvet is the most precious.
Our country is the world's largest ginseng producer. According to data from the Jilin Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the province's ginseng production in 2021 accounted for 60% and 40% of the country's and the world's respectively. In Liaoning Province, Huanren, Benxi, Kuandian and other counties have become large-scale ginseng planting, and they have a strong voice in the national ginseng market. China is also a big country in sika deer breeding, according to the data of the Deer Industry Branch of the China Animal Husbandry Association, China has about 1 million domestic deer, 90% of which are sika deer.
Northeast China, as the country's largest ginseng origin, is also the national ginseng trading center. Located at the foot of Changbai Mountain, Wanliang Ginseng Market in Jilin Province is the largest ginseng trading market in Asia, with an annual trading volume of 20 billion yuan, accounting for 80% of the national ginseng trading volume. Xifeng County, Liaoning Province, which used to be the "royal enclosure", is the main distribution center of dried deer antler velvet in China, and nearly half of the country's imported deer antler velvet is processed here every year. Over the years, the ginseng industry chain in Northeast China has gradually matured, playing an active role in driving farmers' income, strengthening the county economy, and supporting rural revitalization.
In 2023, the comprehensive output value of the ginseng industry in Jilin Province will be 708500 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 103%, which is close to the province's goal of building the ginseng and sika deer industry into a 100-billion-level industry. Liaoning Province also put forward a development plan with an output value of 50 billion yuan for the whole industry chain of deer antlers.
In the China Sika Deer (Xifeng) Modern Agricultural Industrial Park, visitors are interacting with the deer. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee).
The quality of primary raw materials is difficult to control, and the scale of intensive processing is small.
Although the development of ginseng in Northeast China has a long history and a large scale, the reporter visited the main ginseng producing areas and found that the current industry is still in the "primary" and "low-end" stage, and good resources have not yet reaped great benefits.
There is a lack of standardization in planting and breeding, and the quality of raw materials is uneven. Zhang Lianxue, a professor at the College of Chinese Materia Medica of Jilin Agricultural University, said that China's garden ginseng planting is still dominated by individual ginseng, which makes it difficult to promote the standard smoothly. When the reporter visited some ginseng farmers, he also learned that some ginseng plants have excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
In the home of a large sika deer breeding county, the reporter saw that the backyard was transformed into a deer shed, and dozens of sika deer were raised in captivity. There is still a considerable proportion of this kind of small-scale courtyard breeding, with poor facilities and extensive management. Industry insiders told reporters that for many small and medium-sized farmers, the promotion of new technologies and new equipment is not enough, and there are certain difficulties in disease prevention and control.
Deep processing is insufficient, and the products are piled up at the "low end". The reporter visited the ginseng market in many places and noticed that most of the local agricultural products sold here are fresh ginseng, dried ginseng, freeze-dried deer antler velvet, air-dried deer whip, deer fetus and so on. Occasionally, there are deep-processed products, which are also primary processing such as slicing ginseng and powdering deer antlers.
Industry insiders said that although there are many ginseng-related enterprises in Northeast China, most of them are developed from growers, farmers and small workshops, and talent training and technology research and development are shortcomings. In Xifeng County, Liaoning Province, Tieling Shenlu Industrial Group imports a large number of deer antler velvets from New Zealand every year, and then re-exports them to South Korea after initial processing, which is difficult to achieve high value-added deep processing.
According to the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Pharmaceutical and Health Industry in Jilin Province" released by Jilin Province in August 2021, the overall scale of pharmaceutical and health enterprises in Jilin Province is small, with only 9 enterprises with operating income exceeding 1 billion yuan and only 6 varieties with sales revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan; The R&D investment of pharmaceutical and health enterprises above designated size in the province accounts for about 1% of sales revenue, which is lower than the national average of 3%.
It is difficult to distinguish the authenticity of primary raw materials, and frequently encounters crisis of trust. As primary agricultural products, the quality of ginseng and deer antler sold in the market is uneven, and it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity of the varieties.
In some ginseng markets, due to factors such as long testing time, limited testing institutions, and large transaction scale, the sampling rate of ginseng entering the market is not high enough. In 2021, some industry ** reported that in some places in Northeast China, you can apply for a wild ginseng certificate for 10 yuan, and the original market price of dozens of yuan will be doubled and sold to hundreds of yuan.
The same is true for the deer antler industry. Industry insiders said that many professionals cannot distinguish the breed of deer antler velvet without genetic testing, let alone ordinary consumers. Because of this, a considerable number of merchants in the market sell New Zealand red deer antler velvet under the banner of sika deer antler, which has a great advantage.
It is difficult to enter medicine and eat, which restricts the high-end application of ginseng.
Located in Fusong County, Jilin Province, Jilin Huishentang Traditional Chinese Medicine Decoction Piece Technology Co., Ltd. is a large local ginseng product company. In the company's exhibition hall, there are a variety of products such as candied fruit made from ginseng slices and honey, tea made from ginseng leaves, and drinks rich in ginseng active ingredients, but none of them are related to ginseng. "It takes a long time to queue up to apply for a drug number, and it is also very difficult to apply for health food. Yao Youcai, the person in charge of the company, said.
A similar situation is more common in the ginseng industry in Northeast China. In recent years, due to the difficulty in applying for drugs and health foods, it is difficult for some newly established ginseng processing enterprises to get batch numbers, and even the old pharmaceutical companies that have been established for thirty or forty years have also used the old batch numbers of ginseng and deer antler velvet ingredients decades ago. Many companies can't make high value-added drugs and health foods, so they can only settle for the next best thing, starting with processing raw material grade Chinese medicine decoction pieces and ordinary food.
However, there are constraints to processed foods. In 2012, the Ministry of Health approved in a document allowing most of the by-products of sika deer breeding to be used as common food, which opened the "door" for sika deer to eat. However, this document also makes it clear that the antlers, fetuses, bones and antlers used to breed sika deer cannot be used as ordinary food, which restricts many enterprises engaged in the development of deer products.
Jilin Jichun Pharmaceutical Group is a veteran deer products enterprise with hundreds of batch numbers of drugs and health foods, and is marching into deer food in recent years. Qu Fengcai, secretary of the party committee of the group, said that the habit of eating by-products including mushrooms, tires, bones and horns has long existed, "If there is no way to eat, it is difficult for the industry to grow with medicine and health food alone." In Xifeng, Liaoning, Liu Meisi, the head of Liaoning Luxiang Green Port Company, said that the company produced a "deer jumping over the wall" food, including venison, deer tendon and other ingredients, and deer antler velvet could not be added to it because it could not be eaten.
Ginseng consumption is restricted by the number of years of growth. In 2012, the Ministry of Health issued the Announcement on Approving Ginseng (Artificial Cultivation) as a New Resource Food, which clarified that ginseng for consumption must be artificially grown for 5 years or less. This has brought obstacles to the deep processing of a large number of understory ginseng in Northeast China.
At present, Northeast ginseng is mainly divided into two types: garden ginseng and understory ginseng, and the one planted on the hillside or flat land is garden ginseng, and the growth period is mostly about 5 years; The ginseng that grows naturally in the natural forest on the mountain is mostly more than 5 years, and more than 15 years is also called "ginseng" or "wild ginseng".
In Huanren County, Liaoning Province, the "hometown of Chinese ginseng", the planting area of understory ginseng reaches 650,000 mu. There are more than 300 Chinese herbal medicine processing enterprises in the local area, most of which sell Chinese medicine decoction pieces under the forest. Some grassroots cadres in Huanren County said that due to the restriction that "ginseng cannot be eaten for more than 5 years", it is difficult for the ginseng food industry in the county to develop, and a large number of good ginseng sources can only be sold as agricultural products at low prices.
The difficulty in entering medicine and eating is related to the lack of basic pharmacological research on ginseng in Northeast China. Zhao Daqing, a professor of traditional Chinese medicine at Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, has participated in the formulation of ginseng consumption standards. He introduced that in 2011, the relevant departments of ginseng included in the new resource food research, due to the tight time, heavy tasks, the research team selected Jilin Province widely planted 5-year garden ginseng for pharmacological experiments, and did not carry out systematic research on understory ginseng.
Yang Fuhe, president of the deer branch of the China Animal Husbandry Association, said that in 2012, when the association accepted the expert demonstration entrusted by the superiors, everyone recognized most of the by-products of sika deer according to many years of eating habits, but the medicinal properties of "velvet fetal bone horn" were strong, and pharmacological tests were not carried out at that time, so they were not included in the food category for the time being.
Another result of the lack of basic research is that there are different claims about the efficacy of ginseng. In interviews, some garden ginseng growers believe that saponins are in the epidermis of ginseng, and the thicker the ginseng, the better; The origin of ginseng is believed to be rich in saponins at the root nodes of ginseng, and the longer the age, the higher the saponin content, which makes people confused.
The local industry is "big but not strong" and is frequently "squeezed in both directions" overseas
The obstruction of high-end applications and the lack of intensive processing have made China's ginseng industry "big but not strong". Within the ginseng industry, there is a saying that "Chinese ginseng is in the pharmacy, Korean ginseng is on the table", and Northeast ginseng has entered the high-end food and health food market, facing the impact of ginseng products represented by the Korean "CheongKwanjan Jang brand".
On JD.com, the best-selling ginseng brand is CheongKwanJang in South Korea. A box of "CheongKwanJang Red Ginseng Liquid" marked with a growth period of 6 years is priced at more than 400 yuan. In 2022, the global Korean ginseng retail market was approximately 24700 million US dollars, of which the market share of South Korea's "CheongKwanJaung" is 419%。Industry insiders admit that there is no ginseng brand in China that can compete with "CheongKwan-Jang".
According to the "2022-2027 Ginseng Market Development Survey and Competition Pattern Analysis** Report" released by the China Research Institute of Puhua Industry Research Institute, although Chinese ginseng production accounts for more than 70% of the world, its output value accounts for only about 7% of the world's output, forming a pattern of "high production, high export volume, and low output value". Some ** businessmen told reporters that Chinese ginseng was exported to South Korea at a low price, and after being processed into Korean ginseng products, the import ** was more than 10 times the original.
The Northeast sika deer is also on the defensive in overseas competition. In recent years, China's dependence on New Zealand deer antler velvet has been increasing, with annual imports exceeding 800 tons. According to information provided by the New Zealand Deer Industry Board's China office, as of the end of 2022, New Zealand is among the best in the world's deer industry. However, New Zealand's domestic consumption is very small, and a large number of grassland-stocked red deer products enter China at a lower **, which is more competitive than the sika deer in Northeast China. In the interview, a number of industry insiders believe that the demand for domestic deer antler velvet has increased in recent years, but local farmers have not reaped more dividends from it, but have imported more and more deer antler velvet.
Faced with the "two-way extrusion" of overseas high-end products and primary raw materials, Northeast ginseng has not formed a large-scale regional public brand so far. In the main ginseng producing areas of Jilin and Liaoning, almost every county and city has its own regional brand, such as sika deer, there are many regional brands such as "Shuangyang sika deer", "Dongfeng sika deer" and "Xifeng sika deer", and technical personnel around the country can not tell the specific difference between each deer species. Experts said that ginseng brands in various places are fighting their own battles, which is not conducive to forming a joint force to improve the overall competitiveness of ginseng in Northeast China.
Extend the chain and build a brand The main production area is transformed to a new one.
With the in-depth implementation of the Healthy China strategy, all parts of Northeast China have seen the great potential of the ginseng industry to drive regional development, and have extended the chain, strengthened the brand, upgraded the product, and created a world for the county economy from a series of beneficial explorations.
At the beginning of winter, after the snow, the Chinese sika deer (Xifeng) Modern Agricultural Industrial Park is full of deer chirping. This investment 1400 million yuan, covering an area of 500 acres of standardized deer farm, through standardized breeding, epidemic prevention, will form a set of scientific research, deep processing, intelligent deer industry, product trading, tourism and other comprehensive services in one of the industrial park. At present, Xifeng County has built 2 improved breed deer farms and 42 standardized deer farms, and the county processes and distributes more than 900 tons of deer antler velvet and deer by-products annually, with an annual output value of more than 4 billion yuan.
Sika deer breeding is gradually scaled up, and ginseng cultivation is transforming to high quality. Jilin Province has issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the High-quality Development of the Ginseng Industry in the Province", which will focus on the implementation of the "two major projects" of the revitalization of the ginseng seed industry and the improvement of quality, and stabilize the scale of ginseng planting and systematically improve the quality of Jilin ginseng by focusing on the construction of the "Changbai Mountain Ginseng" improved seed breeding base and standardized planting alliance.
On this basis, the main ginseng producing areas in Northeast China have increased innovation, refined categories, continuously extended the deep processing chain, and guided the industry to pass the "second hurdle". Walking into the Huanren County Modern Agricultural Industrial Park, the roads are straight and wide, and the factories are rising from the ground, and well-known traditional Chinese medicine enterprises such as Beijing Tongrentang and Tianjin Tasly have formed an agglomeration effect here. "We have increased our support for deep processing enterprises to empower them to innovate and expand production. Tian Yongjun, the magistrate of Huanren County, said that in 2023, Huanren County will invest more than 200 million yuan to upgrade the production lines of many enterprises, and through investment promotion, it will reach cooperation with Beijing Longan Shengshi Technology Group and other enterprises to achieve 66 signed projects.
Dongfeng County, Jilin Province, has listed the "sika deer + medicine and health" industrial cluster as a key industry in the "14th Five-Year Plan", and strives to raise 350,000 sika deer by 2025. At present, with a total investment of 2.6 billion yuan, the "Dongfeng International Sika Deer Industry Venture Capital Park" has been completed, and 4 production and processing enterprises, 2 scientific research and testing institutions, 3 financial institutions, 3 first-class service institutions and 1 e-commerce live broadcast enterprise have been introduced to settle in and realize industrial agglomeration.
In addition to cultivating "internal strength", the ginseng industry is also making efforts to strengthen the brand. In the past year, the main producing areas of ginseng in Northeast China have taken frequent actions to strengthen the industry influence of products by releasing regional brands and holding industry conferences. In May 2023, Huanren County successfully held the Huanren Mountain Ginseng Brand (Guangzhou) Conference and the 2023 China Mountain Ginseng Industry High-Quality Development Conference. "We must accelerate scientific and technological innovation and brand building, extend the Huanren ginseng industry to the high-end of the value chain, expand to the field of medicine and health, and transform to fast-moving consumer food, and strive to reach 20 billion yuan in the output value of the whole industry chain of Huanren ginseng by 2035. Tian Yongjun said.
In October 2023, the China (Xifeng) Nourishing Health Forum was held in Xifeng County. Xifeng County signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Dong'e Ejiao Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Resources Pharmaceutical Group, a central enterprise, to establish Liaoning Xifeng Sika Deer Industry Research Institute to explore the development model of "authentic medicinal materials + sika deer", promote deer glue products, call out the deer glue brand, build Xifeng sika deer provenance cultural park, Xifeng sika deer ecological park and other projects, and lead the high-quality development of the deer industry.
Make good use of high-quality specialties to create advantageous industries.
For a long time, Northeast ginseng has been famous, and in order to achieve the leap from high-quality specialty to advantageous industry, it is necessary to strengthen system thinking and overall planning, and promote the future of this industry from multiple angles.
Strengthen research and verification and solve the problem of the source. In Jilin Province, Jilin University, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Institute of Special Products of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other scientific research institutes have set up professional teams engaged in ginseng research, helping the province to form a relatively complete ginseng industry science and technology service system from basic research, applied research, experimental development to pilot transformation.
Zhao Daqing, a professor at Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wang Zhixing, deputy county magistrate of Xifeng County, Liaoning Province, and others said that at present, the Northeast ginseng should solve the source problem, and the origins can work together to tackle key problems, use modern pharmacological knowledge, and conduct in-depth research on the pharmacological components and product functions of ginseng and sika deer in different years, different origins, and different parts, so as to provide a scientific basis for the development of more medicinal and edible values of Northeast ginseng.
Speed up the declaration of food and broaden the application space. In view of the bottleneck of some ginseng and deer by-products entering the food field, some experts proposed that China has liberalized the declaration of revising or supplementing the list of edible and medicinal substances, and the three northeastern provinces should actively cooperate to carry out the joint declaration and landing pilot work of ginseng and "deer antlers, deer fetus, deer bones, and antlers" for more than 5 years, so as to open the edible market for deer antler velvet, understory ginseng and other products as soon as possible, and expand the scale of the industry.
Increase public services and build regional brands. At present, the layout of the Chinese herbal medicine market and identification center in Northeast China is not reasonable. Jilin and Liaoning provinces, which have precious medicinal resources such as ginseng and deer antler, have no professional market for Chinese herbal medicines. The National Ginseng Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center in Yanji City, Jilin Province, although it is close to the main ginseng production area of Jilin Yuan, is far away from the ginseng production area of Liaoning.
Industry insiders suggest that the Northeast can build a coordination mechanism for the revitalization and development of the traditional Chinese medicine industry, strengthen public services, set up a professional market for Chinese herbal medicines based on ginseng in Jilin or Liaoning, and lay out a national ginseng identification and testing center in eastern Liaoning, and gradually establish a sound quality management and evaluation system for Chinese herbal medicines; At the same time, the main producing areas of Northeast ginseng have strengthened cooperation to register, protect and publicize joint brands such as "Northeast Ginseng" and "Northeast Deer Antler"; All localities take turns to sit in the village, and regularly hold activities such as the Northeast Ginseng Trade Expo and the Ginseng Cultural Festival to expand the influence of "Northeast Ginseng".
Innovate product formats and tap consumption potential. At present, a large number of ginseng and deer products in Northeast China are wandering in the folk tonic market, which are eaten in the form of stewed soup and grinding powder, mainly for middle-aged and elderly consumer groups, and have not yet been made into modern fast-moving consumer goods with clear functions, easy to carry and easy to use. In contrast, South Korea's CheongKwanJang is targeting a growing market of young people, focusing on ginseng's "immunity-enhancing and anti-fatigue" effects. At present, some local enterprises in Northeast China have begun to cooperate with designers and promoters of leisure, health care and functional foods in the south to plan and develop "lightweight" and convenient modern FMCG.
"Integration of three industries" is also the direction of tapping the potential of ginseng consumption. Dongfeng County, Jilin Province expands deer industry cultural tourism, in the national 3A-level scenic spot Nanzhao Mountain Forest Park, with a total area of 16The 20,000-square-meter Dongfeng County Deer Raising Guanshan Park is an ornamental tourism demonstration area with the theme of artificial domestication of sika deer, where visitors can have zero contact with sika deer, feed, take pictures, and feel the fun of getting close to sika deer.
Xifeng County, Liaoning Province digs deep into the deer culture and jointly calls the "Royal Enclosure 1619" brand with central enterprises. Wang Zhixing, deputy county magistrate of Xifeng County, said that the county will create an immersive experience space such as paddock culture and wild hunting, and will explore the construction of a traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment service center in Bingqishan in the future. (Reporter Wang Bingkun, Wu Jiangmin, Zhang Boyu, Shenyang, Changchun; Contributor: Lu Rui).
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Yan.