According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, association of Chinese herbal medicine is one of the government associations of this country, head of which can be a distance between private and government companies by having one of the high government status in China.

Accompanied by a delegation from 20 private and government companies in the field of medicinal plants, which are recognized as active companies in stock exchange and economy of China, this association visited the large medicinal plant companies of Iran.

The first destination of this delegation was the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs to participate in a meeting with the authorities of traditional medicine and medicinal herbs sciences and technology development headquarter and international affairs of the vice presidency and deputy of directorate general of monitoring and evaluation of natural, traditional and complementary products of the ministry of health, treatment and medical education.

Wang, head of medicinal plants association, expressed about planting medicinal plants in China: our country has been able to earn revenues of 470 billion Yuan through planting and selling medicinal plants. In addition, medicinal plants are planted in four million hectares of lands. One of the goals of this travel to Iran was recognizing the potentials of Iran in the field of medicinal plants and development of joint cooperation in this regard.

He continued: Iran has a high capacity and potential in the field of medicinal plants, which has to be taken advantage of. Iran should not be represented to the world only by its saffron.

Wang also pointed out: as the director of association of Chinese herbal medicine, I hope to have a small role in implementing the plans of “a belt, a road” by participating in meetings with Iranian activists in this field to create the foundations for more collaborations between Chinese and Iranian companies, so that a mutual goal for creation of a joint market is obtained.

In this regard, a technical agreement was signed between Wang and Khorasan’s union of saffron exporters to pay more attention to the technology of this area in the next collaborations of Iran and China.

Representative of Standard Association of China, who was one of the delegation members, learned about the application of saffron and stated: in our country, saffron is only used for medicinal purposes, whereas it is commonly used in everyday food of people in Iran.

He pointed out: if we are able to transfer this culture to China, the saffron market of Iran will be revolutionized since the people of China are not aware of consumption methods of saffron. In addition, a small volume of saffron is currently used in China due to its only application for medicinal purposes.

During these meetings, it was concluded that food standards of saffron be provided and translated by the organization of health and medicine so that food properties of saffron are more recognized in China.

This Chinese delegation traveled to Shiraz and Isfahan and visited knowledge-based companies of “Zarband” and “Samirom”, which are active in the field of medicinal plants.

Moreover, some plans were made during visiting with the head of China section of Tehran room after representing the potentials of Iran in this regard, so that a delegation of Iranian activists in the field of medicinal plants is able to travel to China in the next year.