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Current status and development prospects of plant essential oil industry

Landlord:17600603718  time:12-14 11:38  Click:642  Reply:0  Collection

With the continuous improvement of China's comprehensive strength, people's living standards are also constantly improving. After experiencing the sheep placenta era, the pure plant era, and the herbal era, more and more people are pursuing a niche enjoyment: aromatic Therapy is actually Western herbalism. Using plant essential oils as a medium for massage therapy or health care and beauty, today, essential oil products are becoming the new darling of the entire cosmetics market because of its comprehensive features covering beauty, skin care, mood regulation and health promotion.

Where is the essential oil of plants?



The plant essential oil is an aromatic substance unique to the extracted plant, and is extracted from the flowers, leaves, roots, bark, fruits, seeds, and resins of the herb by distillation and pressing. It is generally composed of more than one hundred components, and of course some are composed of hundreds to thousands of components. In 1937, the French chemist Renee Maurice Gattefosse discovered in an accident that the aromatic smell of plant essential oils and the healing power of the plants themselves can help the body and mind to soothe, achieve the purpose of skin care and improve the health of the body.

The main functions of plant essential oils are as follows:

First, essential oils have unique antibacterial and antiseptic properties, so they have anti-microbial and anti-viral properties.

Second, essential oils contain hormones, antibiotics, and vitamins that provide nutrients to our body cells.

Third, aromatic essential oils help strengthen the body's immune system and help fight various germs and viruses.

Fourth, essential oils can clear away heat and detoxify, cleanse the skin, control oil, remove dark circles under the eye bags, and promote regeneration and recovery of damaged tissues.

Global essential oil industry: the trade market continues to expand

According to world production, the main essential oil crops are mint and lemon essential oils.

Peppermint oil mainly includes peppermint, Dutch mint and Japanese mint. The first two major producers are in the United States and have attractive prices, but they usually require very specific climatic conditions. Japanese mint is mainly grown in China, India and South America. Because these regions have cheap labor, the price of Japanese mint can be kept relatively low.

Lemon essential oils are used in soaps and cleansers. The main areas of production are China, India and South America, with low production costs and a large market share. The main consumers of essential oils are the United States (40%), Western Europe (30%) and Japan (7%).

In developed overseas markets, the essential oil market has accounted for more than 30% of the entire cosmetics market; among them, the total sales of aromatherapy essential oil products in North America, Western Europe and Japan have reached about $13.6 billion in the global market. The share is as high as 80%.

In terms of essential oil imports, developed countries are at the forefront. However, in 2013, China’s imports of essential oil exceeded Japan for the first time. In terms of export volume, India’s exports of essential oils exceeded the United States in 2011, ranking first in the world. In 2013, China surpassed France and jumped to the third place in the world.

The background of the sharp increase in the import of essential oils in emerging economies is considered to be that population growth has driven demand for food and cosmetics, as well as the expansion of localized production of related products. However, the pursuit of lifestyles in developed countries by emerging economies and the increasing awareness of beauty and health among women are also the main reasons for pushing up demand for essential oils.

In terms of exports, there are also changes in the circulation structure. There is a wide variety of channels for the distribution of essential oils from producers to end consumers. In addition, essential oils are often re-exported from middlemen and third countries by major traders such as the European Union. The increased influence of India and China also reflects changes in the structure of essential oil circulation.

Emerging economies such as South Africa will use natural conditions to promote the development of essential oil-related industries. It is said that there are about 300 kinds of essential oils circulating in the international market, and the plants suitable for extracting essential oils are about 10 times that of essential oils, and about 3,000 kinds. Africa has essential oils extracted from the unique aromatic plants of the region, which is expected to be a source of income for local businesses. On the other hand, the underdeveloped regional supply chain has become a topic for the development of related industries in African countries.

United Nations agencies and national government agencies are supporting Africa to cultivate the essential oil industry, and the Japan Trade Promotion Agency is also promoting the export of essential oils to Japan by East African countries. In the future, in the global essential oil industry, it is estimated that the influence of emerging economies will increase.

China's plant essential oil industry status: the problem should not be underestimated

Although the current essential oil market seems to be in full swing, there are many problems.

First, the quality of essential oil plants is not guaranteed, and the quality is uneven.

China's essential oil plant cultivation is currently based on the decentralized cultivation of economic crops by farmers. The essential oil production enterprises develop their own planting mode supplemented by raw material planting bases. The cultivation of essential oil plants lacks a unified standard for the production of essential oils, so the quality is also It is difficult to guarantee that the price in the market is varied, ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands, the stability of quality can not be achieved, the extensive planting is not standard, the randomness of picking and raw material processing, the simplification of equipment, etc. have led to this. situation.

Second, the plant essential oil industry lacks laws and regulations, and product standards are missing.


At present, there are 47 varieties of essential oils for massage and 14 varieties of basic massage oil. The market sells essential oil products with chaotic logos, shoddy products, chemical synthetic flavors as natural essential oils, exaggerated effects, and concept hype, which seriously “cheat” consumers. Although the country has divided the management of cosmetics into the scope of food safety production license management, including plant essential oil products for cosmetics, the safety production license system and implementation rules related to essential oil products have not yet been introduced. The plant essential oil industry lacks sound laws and regulations. International ISO has 119 standards for plant essential oils, and has its own regulations from naming principles, product standards and testing methods. However, ISO's unilateral essential oil standard cannot be directly used in human massage and aromatic health products. The quantitative determination of chemical components in some varieties is just the damage caused to human skin, respiratory system and nervous system.

Third, the lack of professional guidance on the use of plant essential oils poses a safety hazard.

**The TV station "Focus Interview" broadcasted "Three No Products" and "Mysterious Oral Essential Oil" on May 13, 2006, and immediately put a huge question mark on the production, sales and application of the entire essential oil product. The earthquake in the entire professional beauty market, due to the lack of plant essential oil itself and the problems in the market, this brings huge security risks to the use of the product.

Fourth, merchants blindly hype for the pursuit of interests, lacking integrity. Although the essential oil market has a small share in the cosmetics market, most merchants deliberately conceal the real information of goods or businesses in marketing, misleading consumers to purchase, and not accepting the consequences, which will lead to dissatisfaction and even suspected fraud. It is also known that many domestic manufacturers use petroleum ether as a solvent for extracting essential oils in the production process, but petroleum ether has harmful components. In addition, the rose oil on the market, etc., manufacturers claim that the flower is imported from Bulgaria, the world's largest rose producing area, but according to industry estimates, only the flower materials needed for rose oil in the Chinese market have exceeded The total output of roses in Bulgaria.

China's essential oil market development prospects: huge potential

In the past five years, with the improvement of people's living standards and the start and improvement of the domestic essential oil market, the essential oil industry has gradually embarked on the track and initially formed its own brand. The sales of essential oils are growing rapidly at an annual rate of 800% to 1 000%. In the mainland market, the share of the aromatherapy essential oil market in the entire cosmetics market was less than 1% in 2010. In 2011, the sales volume of China's cosmetics market has exceeded 200 billion yuan. It is estimated that the market of aromatherapy essential oils in China has at least 50 billion yuan. Space is available for mining.

First, the market for plant essential oils has shifted to functional specialization. The seasonal concept of functional skin care products and skin care products is constantly being strengthened. On the one hand, the functional concepts of whitening, freckle, anti-aging, moisturizing, sunscreen and hydration are very recognized by consumers; on the other hand, the sales performance of seasonal skin care products is also very strong. In terms of sales, the best-selling category is still a facial skin care product. The marketing expenses of major brand companies increased, the differentiation of consumer consumption increased, and the gap in the brand market narrowed. It can be seen that China's plant essential oil products will also develop in the future with specialization. In view of the characteristics of Chinese people, considering the factors of different genders, different age groups and different skin characteristics, the combination of science and technology content with art and technology will create a profession. Chemical products.

Second, the share of domestic brands in the market will increase. Brand development is the top priority in the development of an industry. In the future, China's plant essential oil products will build their own brands, gain the trust of the domestic market and the international market, and win the recognition of domestic and foreign customers. In the final analysis, any industry that wants to develop better must establish a brand, thereby improving its core competitiveness and ensuring that it will stand up in the tough competition. For Chinese companies, we must seize the maturity of the industry, seize opportunities, ensure the quality of products, and constantly innovate, and then create their own brands, and increase the share of domestic brands in the market. In addition, essential oil itself is also a service industry. In order to go far, it is necessary to establish its own brand image in the minds of consumers. Consumers must trust your brand, and the derivative services of essential oil brands will bring the brand's market image and Market competitiveness points.

Third, shape the superior products. In the essential oil products industry, China has many advantages in raw materials, but there are no advantageous products, which leads to the products we produce are not competitive, and there is no entry point when propagating. In the essential oil industry, we must turn our resource advantages into product advantages. In addition to brand awareness, we must also create branded brand products, use scientific and advanced extraction technology, and at the same time commit to deliver more scientific essential oils to consumers. idea. It is the foundation of the market to create products with sufficient competitiveness with professionalism and rigorous attitude.

Fourth, build an independent system of industry supervision. Constructing a system of independent supervision, management, production, sales and supervision is the development direction of China's essential oil and aromatic industries in the future. People who are engaged in the production and management of essential oils in China may be due to reasons of disunity or reasons for lack of rational and rational knowledge. They may also be more reasons for considering individual abilities and powers. They do not like to formulate standards and are afraid of setting standards. Can make yourself benefit, but let others grab the opportunity. Not paying attention to standard construction is an important reason for the phenomenon of fake, chaotic and inferior in China's essential oil industry. Therefore, the industry supervision, management, production, sales, supervision and other units must be subdivided, and mutually restrict, supervise each other, and learn from each other and improve. Only in this way can China's essential oil and aromatic industries become a benign development industry.


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