The Hindu Business Line : Call to evolve action plan for herbal exports

THE herbal industry, the Government and research institutions have been called to co-operate in evolving an action plan for export development of herbs.

This was finalised at a seminar jointly held by the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture and the World Trade Centre here.

According to a study conducted by the Mumbai-based M. Visveswaraya Industrial Research and Development Centre (MVIRDC), the industry must focus on value addition and should gradually shift to processed supplements of the crude products and then further on to finer product forms. Similarly, drug standardisation without overlooking international product quality specifications has to be the main focus to strengthen the Indian share in the world market.

It noted that the herbal product export trade accounted for 1.15 per cent out of the total exports in 2001. Over the past six years, an overall 67.27 per cent value-wise growth has been registered in herbal exports despite a drop of 2.94 per cent during 1998.

Destructive unplanned collection of plants and herbs was a regular practice and the main obstacle in achieving the export growth was the lack of planned cultivation carried out in a sustainable manner, the study said.

It called for adopting pre-planned systemised cultivation practices with industry support to achieve the required export growth in a sustainable manner.

To stake the Indian claim before the world, it is required that the Indian Government and the Indian industry must bring before the global village, all the ancient texts in a modern forms to justify our expertise in this field. The back up of clinical trials and proper documentation of the medicinal treatment would be essential in this regard, it said.

It is estimated that the global OTC herbal market is more than $50 billion and the global spending on natural medicines as packaged goods reached $18.5 billion during 2000. The nine major markets that accounted 72 per cent of sales included China and India. By year 2003, the market is forecast to reach $20.3 billion in real terms, an increase of nearly 10 per cent from 2000.

Establishing a separate export promotion council for promoting herbal products and ayurvedic medicines promoted by the industry would be instrumental in bringing a sustainable export growth, the study concluded.

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Call to evolve action plan for herbal exports