In recent years, plant medicine has been increasingly valued and favored in Europe, its development speed has been faster than chemical drugs, and is now in a prosperous period. In terms of economic strength, scientific research and technology, laws and regulations, as well as consumption concepts, the European Union is the most mature herbal medicine market in the West. It is also a huge potential market for traditional Chinese medicine, with huge space for expansion.
The application history of botanical medicine in the world has been quite long. With the development of science and technology, the emergence of chemical drugs once pushed plant medicine into the edge of the market. Now, when people weigh and choose the pain caused by the quick effects and severe side effects of chemical drugs, plant medicine is once again in front of pharmacologists and patients with its concept of returning to nature. The world botanical drug market is mainly dominated by the United States, Germany, France, Japan and so on.
Europe: Huge market, fast growing industry
Europe is one of the world’s botanical medicine markets. Traditional Chinese medicine has been introduced to Europe for more than 300 years, but it was only in the 1970s that countries began to deeply understand and use it. In recent years, the use of Chinese herbal medicine has been rapidly developed in Europe, and at present, Chinese herbal medicine and its preparations have been all over the European market.
According to statistics, the current European plant medicine market size is about 7 billion US dollars, accounting for about 45% of the global market, with an average annual growth rate of 6%. In Europe, the market is still in the established market of Germany, followed by France. According to the data, Germany and France account for about 60% of the total European market share of herbal medicines. Second, the United Kingdom accounts for about 10%, ranking the third. The Italian market is growing very fast, and has already taken the same market share as the United Kingdom, also at about 10%. The remaining market share is ranked by Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. Different markets have different sales channels, and the products sold also vary with the region. For example, the sales channels in Germany are mainly drugstores, accounting for 84% of the total sales, followed by grocery stores and supermarkets, accounting for 11% and 5% respectively. In France, pharmacies accounted for 65% of the sales, supermarkets accounted for 28%, and health food ranked the third, accounting for 7% of the sales.