Supplements ingredients producer TSI USA and natural dietary supplements specialists Green Foods have both joined the USCHPA member’s board.
This membership section is a voting category comprised of companies looking to gain information and greater access to the China market as well as guide the association and its on-going initiatives.
Jeff Crowther, founder of USCHPA told FoodNavigator-Asia that both companies are “well respected veterans of the industry and bring years of international experience to the association table.”
Driving a transparent health market
The USCHPA is focused on developing a more transparent regulatory environment in China’s natural health product industry and is dedicated to increasing successful trade of its member’s products and services.
Crowther said that the association works with “both the US and Chinese governments as well as industry to share information and encourage regulatory movement that in the end will benefit the consumers and industry.”
“Associations are certainly important and play a huge role in regulatory reform and overall industry development,” he noted.
“Although many foreign associations and organisations have been coming to China over the last decade or so, there has been very little in the way of impact because these groups don’t have full time people on the ground in China nor is their focus China,” he said.
USCHPA is the “only US non-profit association with staff in China and focused completely on China,” he noted.
“Showing up in China once every couple of years isn’t going to have an impact,” he added.
“For regulatory reform to take place, industry has to work together using a trade group as a focal point to head up the advocacy side of things,” he said.
Valuable voices
Crowther said TSI will provide a unique perspective on the intricate relationship between the US and Chinese health market due to its work across both countries, including manufacturing facilities in China.
“The TSI management team will be a valuable asset to the association’s mission of encouraging development and closer relations between the two industries,” he said.
Similarly Green Foods is a renowned company in the green foods category and thus has valuable knowledge and insight on this sub-sector within the natural health products market, he added.