Global Experience Documentary: Modernizing the Chinese Supply Chain

The SupplySide Global Experience film series goes back to China for its latest documentary film, underwritten by BGG. Steve Myers, senior editor, and Jon Benninger, vice president, look inside operations at a botanical extract production facility and algae cultivation plant as examples of how Chinese suppliers are modernizing the supply chain through investments in quality, sustainability, research and product development. They also explore how traditional medicinal plant partners in China are helping suppliers bring botanical traditions into the modern era.

BGG has been a supplier of innovative and high-quality dietary and pharmaceutical ingredients based on its extensive knowledge of traditional botanical medicine and modern testing and production technologies. The company has worked with scientists from Chinas top institutions to research Chinese herbs and develop new health applications for herbs from both China and around the world.

From its early days, BGG has partnered with the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development (IMPLAD), a Beijing-based partnership with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) and Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) that has served as the only national research institution in China to support, develop and protect medicinal plant resources. Since 1983, IMPLAD has played a leading role in worldwide research on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) plants and has been a WHO (World Health Organization) Collaborating Center for Traditional Medicine. IMPLAD operates six branches throughout China, with its main branch in Beijing, where it maintains the Beijing Medicinal Plant Garden as well as extensive scientific resources on medicinal plants and modern testing facilities.

The Beijing location of Tongrentang (TRT), was founded in 1669 and is the oldest TCM provider in China. It long tradition of supplying TCM includes a longstanding partnership to supply the royal families of China starting with Emperor Kangxi back in the Qing Dynasty. TRT is a famous brand for TCM products in China and has maintained strict product standards as it brings TCM into more modern delivery forms.

BGG's extract production facility in the Changping area of Beijing processes raw materials from China and abroad using modern equipment and both traditional and modern knowledge. It houses a full modern laboratory used to ensure quality products as well as to develop new processes and applications.

BGGs newest facility is a state-of-the-art microalgae cultivation plant in Southwest China currently focused on producing natural astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis. Located in Shilin, outside of Kunming City in chinas Yunnan Province, the facility takes advantage of plentiful clean natural resources and an abundance of sunshine to help drive its closed photobioreactor system for cultivating astaxanthin-rich microalgae in a controlled and sustainable manner. The 100-plus-acre facility also includes laboratories for testing and R&D.