In the 1950s, China licorice output had remained between 19,000 to 20,000 tons per year , in the 1960s, the output of licorice was between 22,000 to 23,000 tons annual.However,at the end of the 1980s, the farmers of domestic licorice-producing areas started to dig wild licorice, even the young grass. Therefore, in the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the domestic licorice total output had soared between 35,000 to 40,000 tons annually.
Because of the crazy excavation, the Northwest wild licorice producing areas faced the rapid desertification and severe deterioration of the ecological environment. At last,local farmers had to relocate.In 2006, China wild licorice total output fell down 4000 to 5000 tons.
    With the introduction of the policy of protection wild licorice.Farmers begun to plant licorice in a large amount in  Northwest and Northeast.Currently,the amount of licorice on the market reached more than 10 thousand per year. However,it still can not meet the demand on domestic market.It is understood that many countries had wild licorice resources,such as Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan,  Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan and so on. At present,Central Asia is the largest region for China to import licorice, which accounted for about 80% of China's total import licorice.
The situation of short supply continued
    Since the 1990s, the national legislation prohibited the extensive collection of wild licorice in order to protect the environment and valuable resources of Northwest.which led to the short supply of licorice,many entreprises had to import raw materials from overseas to meet the demand.In 2011, China's import of licorice was 10,659 tons,it is expected this figure will reach 12,000 to 13,000 tons in this year. China's export licorice was only 3300 tons,which was mainly exported to Japan and South Korea.
    The United States and Japan were the main licorice acid producing and consuming countries that now primarily import licorice from the Central Asian.It is reported that over the past three or four years, the licorice acid price had been rising on the international market.It is expected the price of licorice acid will rise over 5 euros this year because China, Japan and other East Asian countries import large quantities of licorice in Central Asia,which generally lead to the rise of licorice on the international market .

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