Chinese Stevia Industrial Development Facing Multiple Challenges( PART I)

Despite Stevia is with good nutrition and healthy characteristics, its development has been expanding , but the stevia industrial development in China is also facing many problems.
During the past two years, our stevia industry in international market's position is facing unprecedented extrusion and challenges of foreign industry. In order to develop our stevia industry, and to seek for good policy for stevia industry, the industry held a meeting to discuss this sissue.
According to the vice director, Yu Zhibin from China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products, the challenges faced by stevia industry in China is mainly three.
Firstly, the increase of foreign trade barriers to some extent hindered the development of China 's stevia industry.
Pesticide residues, heavy metals, microorganisms and other requirements' improvement brought the increase of trade barriers. The increase of the cost of enterprises' doing business such as the new demands of the enterprise product certification, labor costs, medicinal herbs' prices increase, as well as the country's new requirements of the environmental issues for manufacturing enterprises, etc., are the new challenge for the following step's development of the whole plant extract industry. The biggest challenge for plant extracts industry's development in is the industry itself, which includes both the external environment of industrial development , but also the problems faced by the industry itself.
In current international market, trade restrictions by the use of technical barriers to trade (TBT) is generally unspoken secret. Especially in developed countries, they take the advantages of technology and industrial development, standards and a variety of administrative regulations, especially use such green barriers as the test for detection of pesticide residues, heavy metals, microorganisms, etc. to limit and offset some developing countries' advantages in terms of land, resources and labor. Stevia Industry in China in the international market has some potential advantages for development. However, many countries have adopted a variety of administrative and technical regulations, technical standards, product certification requirements to limit the export of stevia from China. Stevia industry in China plagued more and more technical barriers when entered into the international market.