With the big Medicinal mushroom conference coming up in China in September it is interesting to note that there has been a surge in interest in the West in TCM – that is Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Scotsman Christian Hogg runs a TCM company Chi-Med (Hutchinson China Meditech) and he predicts that TCM is going to get bigger and bigger.
“Prospects are quite incredible. The Chinese healthcare market is growing at 20% a year and 40% of that is accounted for by TCM”.
The company has a laboratory just outside of Shanghai and there is a team of 200 scientists and support staff with £100m spent on research and development. The idea is to produce medicines derived from roots and herbs (and mushrooms) documented in Chinese texts, some dating back as long as-go as 2000 years.
Hogg notes that UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) have recently acquired an 8.4% stake in the company. Anyone who knows UBS, knows that this is quite an endorsement.
Mushrooms obviously play a huge part in the TCM medicine cabinet. If one believes the figures then medicinal mushroom production could be a very viable business option in the tough times ahead.
