OBJECTIVETo understand the present status and characteristics of Dendrobium officinale industry and to provide a rationale for the sustainable industrial development.

METHODBased on references and an on-site investigation of main Dendrobium officinale-producing enterprises and market, to analyze main existing problems and to propose suggestions for sustainable development.

RESULTMore than 10 provinces and regions are involved in the production around the center of Zhejiang and Yunnan provinces. These two provinces are different from each other in development pattern. Yunnan adopts a mode of companies minus farmer households but Zhejiang mainly employs a mode that a leading company establishes a production base with production, processing and marketing combined together. Zhejiang mode is characterized by high tech, high investment, high risk and high return. Existence of non-genuine species, stagnancy in development and application of varieties and techniques for quality control and a narrow channel for marketing are the key problems limiting sustainable development of the industry.

CONCLUSIONThe key to sustainable development of the industry is to establish a technological alliance to speed up development of common techniques and application of integrated innovations, to strengthen self-discipline and monitoring of production, and to expand sales market.