NEWDELHI: Indian herbal industry is likely to register a compound annual growthrate of 20 per cent to touch Rs 14,500 crore by 2012, industry body Assochamsaid on Saturday.
The Indianherbal market size is currently worth Rs 7,000 crore and the export of itsmedicines would grow at 25 per cent to Rs 9,000 crore, Assocham said in itsstudy, Herbal Industry Biz Potential.
Setting up of Herbal FarmClusters by the government, promotion of exports, doubling the cultivation ofmedicinal plants, continuous focus for research and development on product andeffective marketing of herbal products are the reasons cited by Assocham for thegrowth in herbal industry.
"The study reveals that out of700 plant species commonly used in India, only 20 per cent were earlier beingcultivated on commercial scale and 90 per cent of medicinal plant used by theindustries are collected from the wild," Assocham President Venugopal Dhootsaid.
However, the studystates that the major hurdle for cultivating medicinal and aromatic plants as asustainable agricultural profession are the lack of organised and regulatedmarkets in India.
"Theregulated production on scientific lines, effective enforcement of licensingsystem and setting up of Export Promotion Zones (EPZ) in select states will pushup exports of herbal material and medicines," it added.
The study said that thefarmers should be trained, particularly in post-harvest handling of the productsand stressed for the dissemination of information about the prospects ofcultivation, processing and marketing of medicinal plants.