Development of medicinal and aromatic plants market and marketing channels in Serbia | Razvoj tržišta i kanali marketinga lekovitog i aromatičnog bilja u Srbiji

Healing effects of different plant species has been known since ancient civilizations. The use for therapeutic purposes through the folk medicine has been hold even today. In the second half of the 20th century it was growing the use of medicinal herbs and herbal products. The cause of this trend is in an objectively high therapeutic value, as well as in an absence of the side effects of these products. Return of natural resources into the diet and treatment is leading to an improvement of the medicinal plants¢ production and exploitation. At the market there are present the products derived from medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, chemical and food industry. In this thesis there have been analyzed the comparative advantages of the MAP market in Serbia, i.e. in natural resources, in an existence of the collecting and growing tradition, then in an existence of the processing capacities as well as placement of MAP on the EU market, where we gradually return our lost positions. By popularization of production, together with an involvement of all market actors (collectors, producers, processors, state and appropriate institutions) we get the conditions to increase an export, together with more organized appearance at the foreign markets. One of the conditions for successful business in this market is un introduction of quality standards in all segments of the sector, and thus obtaining the health and safe products that will be competitive on both domestic and foreign markets. The MAP sector could become a development opportunity of agriculture (particularly of the hilly-mountain areas) as well as of some other economic branches. By analyzing the EU market as well as some particular countries¢ markets it came to the conclusion that this market is at the stage of maturity, that it continues to record growth (about 5% annually) and that there is sustainable demand for these products. The marketing channels are one the keys for the success of this market, as they adequately market these products to the consumers. In Serbia the market of herbal products is in developing phase. Due to various constraints in the marketing channels, the pharmacies have long been the only one sales channel, and still are the dominant one. The reason for such positioning of the herbal products are insufficient marketing activities in this market segment. The requirements of modern market to products derived from medicinal plants are efficiency, health safety and permanent presence in the market. In order to promote this market, it is necessary to: identify consumer needs, introduce regulations, standards and laws in line with the EU, to choose the optimal sales channels, increase the competitiveness of our products (by introduction of GACP, GMP, HACCP and other standards). Serbia has at disposal the MAP raw materials, as well as the production facilities, personnel and institutions that can support this sector and promote this market.