Packaging products at a factory of JPS Pharmaceutical Company (Japan). (Photo: Dao Thanh Tung/VNA)

Data from Japan Customs, Vietnam raked in 8.6 million USD from exporting medicinal herbs to Japan in 2021.

The Vietnam Trade Office said that Japan has imported a lot of medicinal herbs from Vietnam. However, Vietnamese medicinal herbs account for a small share in the Japanese market, only 1.1 percent of the East Asian country's total import turnover of medicinal herbs.

According to the Vietnam Trade Counsellor in Japan, Ta Duc Minh, a number of Japanese pharmaceutical companies are interested in and highly valued Vietnamese medicinal herbs.

Sharing Minh’s opinion, Nguyen Van Giap, Director of Hasu No Hana JSC, the exclusive distributor of many Japanese pharmaceutical companies, said that the demand for importing raw medicinal materials from the Japanese market is huge.

China holds a large market share in most of the medicinal products that Vietnam is exporting to Japan.

However, Makoto Tamura, Director of Tochigi Factory of JPS Pharmaceutical Company, said his company plans to expand its international projects, so besides China, the firm intends to import medicinal materials from other countries, including Vietnam.

In order to boost the export of medicinal herbs to Japan, medicinal herb manufacturers and exporters of Vietnam need to pay special attention to planning planting areas, tending and harvesting medicinal herbs, and processing and post-harvest storage in order to meet Japan's strict regulations on food safety and hygiene, Minh said.

To fully tap opportunities in the Japanese market, Minh said that Vietnam needs to develop production chains associated with processing instead of just raw processing with low efficiency, especially focusing on attracting domestic and foreign investment into the sector towards developing large-scale pharmaceutical production and processing centres, he added.

Experts also recommended pharmaceutical material producers and exporters of Vietnam to pay heed to product traceability.

Taruma said his firm attaches great importance to the traceability and understanding of the production of medicinal herbs by farmers to make sure that the quality of the raw materials for medicine production is good.