Anthony Booker Deborah Johnston and Michael Heinrich
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Anthony Booker1,2 Deborah Johnston1,3 and Michael Heinrich1,2 Sowing the seeds, reaping the benefits: can an ethos of quality and ethical trading improve health in Asia and Europe? 1) Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health, (LCIRAH) 36 Gordon Square, London, UK 2) UCL School of Pharmacy, 29 – 39 Brunswick Square, London, UK 3) School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London UK UCL SCHOOL OF PHARMACY BRUNSWICK SQUARE SUMMARY TYPICAL HERBAL VALUE CHAIN CHALLENGES Assuring the quality of nutraceutical and Herbal medicines, nutraceuticals and £/Kg SUPPLY functional foods, is one of the key interfaces of herbal medicinal products is a major Land , labour, seed stock challenge to the Asian herbal industry. the pharmaceutical and nutritional sector. 0.1-1 FARM Herbal medicines are used by 35% of the fertilizer, equipment, plant Increasing quality will effect the price of population1 and the UK industry is expected to care, finance product along the length of the chain. 2 The Fairtrade approach can help to improve be worth £290 million by 2012 . The popularity of Traditional Chinese Medicines reached a quality but it is currently only a minor player in COLLECTION, peak in the 1990’s but following serious Labour, premises, equipment, the Industry. DRYING, storage, utilities adverse reactions and occurrences of poor PROCESSING For meaningful quality systems to be implemented it will be necessary to introduce quality demand declined. What are the lessons that can be learnt? Quality costs, and in a a quality ethos along the whole of the chain. Much expertise for this lies in Europe and so market that is often driven by cost how viable is it to establish a change in ethos in which strategies should be introduced to work in production becomes quality driven? partnership with Asian producers to achieve 1-2 MARKET* Premises, transport, handling the common aims of producing material that costs complies to current and future European standards. Sustainability and environmental impact are key factors to consider and any trajectories that are developed to promote Transport , premises, storage, WAREHOUSE packaging, economic growth should be implemented identity testing without having a detrimental effect on the local ecology. Shipping, unload, inspection, sample , documents, customs UK PORT and excise, storage, port handling charges, fumigation The Asian market is subject to economic influence and so it is useful to analyse data that reflects the herbal value chain. Wealth Premises, staff, equipment, receive and record , QC generation is weighted towards the consumer analysis , storage , re- end of the chain and consequently the farmers 2-3 UK SUPPLIER package , distribution, 3 and producers are the lowest beneficiaries . dispatch, compliance, The production of a quality product requires advertising, promotional, Good Practice along the length of the chain. transport, ICT, finance, insurance, wastage OPPORTUNITIES 5-15 Opportunities are emerging for the PRACTITIONER Premises, diagnosis, development of strategic global partnerships formulation, postage, between Asian and European stakeholders unpacking, visual check storage, re-ordering, particularly in relationship to the development documents, professional of nutraceuticals and herbal medicinal membership, insurance, training, ICT, wastage products. China has a well developed herbal market and India has the potential to follow END 40-60 Consumer pays for all this lead. The development of this market may CONSUMER costs added lead to high quality Asian health products being available in Europe and contributing towards improved health of the producers in Forging alliances with the producers and giving Asia. financial rewards for quality will lead to benefits for the agricultural workers in Asia, suppliers of The herbal value chain begins with the herb grower in Asia and finishes with the consumer products, and end consumers. in the Europe, As the herb material moves along the chain value is added in terms of costs to the producer and it is the consumer who will eventually pay for these costs along with any profits added. *By buying direct from the producer and selling direct to the practitioner or end REFERENCES consumer companies are able to by-pass 1) Ipsos MORI poll, Public Perceptions of Herbal Medicines, Published:13 January 2009 Available online at http://www.ipsos- middle men. mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/public-perceptions-of-herbal-medicines-report.pdf 2) Avena consultants, 2010 Herbal medicine research, Herbal medicine in the CONCLUSION UK. Available online at http://www.avenaconsultants.co.uk/documents/Herbal%20Medicine%20Resear The relevance of the phytomedicine value chain has until now been overlooked in the literature. ch -The%20Current%20Picture.pdf 3) Booker, A., D. Johnston and M Heinrich (2012) Value chains of herbal More research is needed in order to better understand the complex linkages that are involved in medicines – research needs and key challenges in the context of ethnopharmacology. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 10.1016/j.jep.2012.01.039 the supply of herbal medicinal products and how these linkages may impact on the producer. CENTRE FOR PHARMACOGNOSY AND PHYTOTHERAPY .