The medicinal plants, officinal herbs and spices sector is pushing for a change of skin on sustainability not only in production, but also in trade. This is what emerged during the conference “The officinal supply chain: quality assurance for the natural products market” hosted at the recently concluded Macfrut event (read the EFA News article) as part of the Spices&Herbs Global Expo. Moderating the event was Demetrio Benelli , director of the specialized magazine Erboristeria Domani, organizer of the day together with the Italian Federation of Officinal Plant Producers (Fippo).

In a sector still dominated by traditional production methods in which the collection of wild herbs has a predominant role, the growing competition with the pharmaceutical sector makes it necessary to upgrade the sector not only from a production point of view, which is also linked to the regulatory one, but also from a commercial one.

“Because of the complementarity with the pharmaceutical sector,” said Denzil Phillips , a consultant and expert in the sector, “entire supply chains of medicinal herbs have been lost, such as Kava Kava, which is mainly grown in some Pacific islands that, due to the loss of the market, have lost a main source of income.” Among the plants that have seen a boom, on the other hand, there is, for example, the beetroot, which is becoming a real medicinal plant.

The evolution of the sector leads to considering new marketing channels. No longer just the cosmetic or pharmaceutical one, where the value chain is not distributed equally even with respect to the practices used by growers. Today, players can no longer ignore the involvement of influencers in marketing activities, just as the sector must also open up to the world of e-commerce platforms already normally used, for example, by Chinese producers of medicinal herbs and spices.

One of the hot topics in the supply chain is the correct botanical identification of the product. “Each plant of the same species,” specifies Chlodwig Franz , professor at the University of Vienna, “can have different biological characteristics that depend on many factors, first and foremost, the place where it is grown. It is important to be able to identify it correctly as well as highlight adulterations.”

Classic methods based on phytochemical analysis of plant material do not provide a complete picture of the active biological component. In this sense, new approaches have been developed, such as the genetic identification of markers of each principle contained in the plant. “These perspectives of the sector,” said Mauro Serafini, professor of pharmaceutical biology at Sapienza University of Rome, “must fit into the concrete framework provided by regulations and quality controls that are extremely rigorous. The application of data obtained from research can lead to conflicts with regulations that are often not easily linearly related to the results obtained. Consider the Healthy Claims of Regulation 1924 of 2006.”

“Today there are many new uses for medicinal plants but the production chain is not yet up to speed", explains Andrea Primavera , president of Fippo. "In the face of new outlets, for example, in the sector of biosolutions in agriculture, dyes, veterinary products or supplements, we are faced with a fragile supply chain, linked to price fluctuations, possible environmental contamination, lack of planning or climate change, but above all obsolete. 80% of raw materials still come from spontaneous collection and archaic systems of production and access to the market. All this in a context in which we are witnessing the phenomenon of the disappearance of the spontaneous collectors themselves. A real idiosyncrasy with the world of consumption which, on the other hand, is growing. In 2024 the global market of the sector reached a turnover of 50 billion dollars, +30% compared to five years earlier".