The market presence of foreign toothpaste brands in China has significantly increased in the last five years, said Liang Yingqi, chairman of the board of directors of the Liuzhou Liangmianzhen Co. Ltd., the only listed toothpaste enterprise in the country.

 

Foreign brands have quickly entered Chinese market through joint ventures and branched out via their sales channels and networks, the People’s Daily reported on December 12.

Their investment, almost 10 times that of Chinese domestic enterprises, have seen them encroach more and more onto territory formerly held by the latter. During the competitions, domestic brands including Guangzhou’s Jieyin, Shanghai’s Baiyu, Hangzhou’s Xiaobaitu (little white rabbit), Jilin’s Whole Clean, and Suzhou’s Yuezhonggui, which used to be well-known, either have been eliminated or are putting up a desperate struggle. Those remaining include Liangmianzhen, Lengsuanling, Tianqi, Blue Sky Liubizhi, and Yunnan Baiyao, etc.

 

Instead of sitting idly by, domestic companies rack their brains to figure out a way out. The Liangmianzhen Co. Ltd. became the first one to use Chinese herbal medicines prescription, a rewarding decision since its products have been widely accepted.

 

The success of Liangmianzhen has attracted numerous domestic toothpaste companies which followed suit with Tianqi, Yunnan Baiyao and Lensuanling soon launching similar initiatives. The concept of Chinese herbal medicine becomes an obvious difference for Chinese brands as opposed to foreign ones.

 

Chinese herbal medicine additives in toothpastes come into play through the procedures of collection, processing and refining of effective compositions. Their prescription is vital in toothpaste production since it determines to what extent TCM additives in toothpaste can become effective. Domestic enterprises enjoy special advantages in this field which is a blind zone for foreign enterprises who usually conduct research and development depending solely on chemicals like fluorine and Triclosan.

 

To cope with fierce competition from foreign brands, solutions for domestic enterprises also include making unified production standards, said an insider. Since early 2005, sponsored by the Liangmianzhen Co. Ltd., some Chinese enterprises have devoted themselves to making industrial standards for Chinese herbal medicine toothpastes.

 

The only unified standard in the Chinese toothpaste industry so far is the “Toothpaste Standard GB8372-2001” which does not set a quota for toothpastes’ effectiveness. “That has resulted in non-standardized and unfair competition in the market,” said insiders.

 

Yan Erping, a member of the China Oral Care Industrial Association and technical director of Liangmianzhen Co. Ltd., explained that due to the complicated nature of Chinese herbal medicines’ compositions, it is difficult for consumers to distinguish which toothpaste contains the compositions and which do not. Even if one does contain it, it is still difficult to define its effect. So the establishment of scientific and strict experimental ways and standards is particularly urgent and important, said Yan.

 

(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong, December 17, 2006)