Vietnam imports more Chinese medicinal materials in Q1

Vietnam imported nearly 93.7 million U.S. dollars worth of materials and accessories used for pharmaceutical production in the first quarter of this year, with roughly 59 percent of the money spent on importing Chinese items.

Vietnam spent over 55 million U.S. dollars importing medicinal materials and accessories from China in the three-month period, gaining a year-on-year rise of 9.5 percent, the Industry and Trade Information Center under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade told Xinhua on Friday.

Meanwhile, Vietnam poured 18.9 million dollars into importing medicinal materials and accessories from India, up 58.3 percent, and 3.5 million dollars from Spain, up 234.3 percent.

The country spent 2.5 billion dollars importing materials and accessories, mainly from China, India, Britain, Switzerland and Spain, to produce pharmaceuticals and functional foods last year, according to statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Vietnam has over 5,000 species of medicinal plants, but only 90 species are grown on a large scale with annual output of some 100,000 tons, according to its Drug Administration Department. Endit