Chinese medicines catch a market cold

Wholesale prices fall from the boom years as oversupply hits the industry

Tumbling prices have left the traditional Chinese medicine industry in poor health. Finding the cure will not be easy. Oversupply, poor planning and increased competition threaten to send the sector into a summer slump.

Wholesale prices for pseudo-ginseng, codonopsis and chrysanthemum have all fallen, plunging the industry into what experts describe as a recession.