Yunnan e-fair to promote herbs abroad

Kunming (CNS) – Yunnan Province is home to a great variety of Chinese herbs, but lacks distribution channels to promote them abroad. The local government will unite provincial herbal farm operators and traders via an e-commerce platform, it announced on Tuesday.

The first session of the Yunnan E-Trade Fair on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Modern Logistics, will be held from April 5 to 11, the period in the lunar calendar that the Bai Nationality celebrates with their March Street Festival.

"Traditionally, businessmen gathered together during the festival and made deals on Chinese herbs," said Hong Yunlong, deputy head of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture. "This trade fair will draw traders from neighboring provinces and countries as well," he added, "including India, Laos and Myanmar."

The e-commerce platform is designed to be a virtual base for natural medicinal materials and a traditional Chinese medicine trade center radiating throughout Southeast Asia, South Asia and other regions.

Yunnan Province is now home to over three million mu of Chinese herbs farms, with gardens devoted to Panax, Gastrodia elata, angelica, gentian Yunnan, Dendrobium candidum and other plants.