"The majority of business owners are requested to consciously remove them from the shelves. Our bureau will carry out special clean-up operations in the near future in accordance with relevant laws and policy requirements, and resolutely investigate and deal with relevant illegal acts."
Recently, market supervision departments in many places across the country have issued similar notices, requiring businesses to remove betel nut and betel nut products from their shelves.
Incomplete statistics from the Red Star Capital Bureau found that at least 7 places have explicitly requested to be removed from the shelves.
Data shows that the betel nut industry has an output value of nearly 100 billion. This time, the market supervision departments in various places requested it to be removed from the shelves or to press the pause button for its development.
Many places demand the removal of betel nuts
The regulations were first promulgated in 1996
As early as September 1996, the Xiamen Municipal People's Government promulgated the "Regulations on the Prohibition of Production, Sale and Consumption of Betel Nut in Xiamen".
In May of this year, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Xishui County, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province published an article on the cancer of betel nut on the public account of "Xishui Market Supervision", and said: "Please take the business owners off the shelves consciously, and our bureau will follow the relevant regulations. Laws and policies require that a special clean-up operation will be carried out in the near future, and relevant illegal acts will be resolutely investigated and punished."
From September 7th to 9th, the Food Supervision Unit, Comprehensive Law Enforcement Team, and various market supervision offices of Huidong County Market Supervision Bureau of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province also carried out special rectification of betel nut and betel nut products, requiring merchants to remove betel nut and betel nut products from their shelves. Betel nut products.
On September 13, Jianxing Town, Nanfang County, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province issued a notice saying that according to the “Notice on Matters Concerning the Supervision of Betel Nut Products” (Shi Jian Shi Sheng Han [2021] No. 1582) by the General Office of the General Administration of Market Supervision, Sichuan Provincial Market The Office of the Supervision Administration's "Notice on Strengthening the Supervision of the Sales of Betel Nut Products" and other documents require that from now on, all food operators must promptly remove from the shelves, and are not allowed to sell betel nut and betel nut products marked on food packaging and labels.
On September 16, the WeChat official account of the Market Supervision Bureau of Xinjin District, Chengdu mentioned that in order to further strengthen the sales supervision of betel nut products, Huaqiao Institute recently launched a special inspection of betel nut products.
In this operation, the surrounding areas of the campus, supermarkets, convenience stores, small shopping malls, etc. are used as key inspection areas to conduct in-depth investigations into illegal sales of betel nut. At the same time, the online takeaway platform is used to search for illegal sellers of betel nut, and then offline inspections are carried out to achieve precise strikes. .
At present, a total of 10 food business units such as convenience stores and supermarkets have been inspected, and 6 food business operators have been found to be selling betel nut, and they have been ordered to remove them immediately.
On September 19, the WeChat public account of Yingshan County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Nanchong City, Sichuan Province announced that all operators are not allowed to sell betel nut and betel nut products marked on food packaging and labels; Immediately contact the food business unit to take it off the shelf. If there is any illegal act, it will be investigated and punished according to law.
According to Red Star News, on September 15, a businessman in Yiwu received a notice requiring all betel nuts to be removed from the shelves and permanently banned from selling them as food, otherwise they would face punishment.
The staff of the Yiwu Market Supervision and Administration Bureau confirmed that the above notice is true, and stated that the relevant higher-level departments have recently requested that "food operators in Zhejiang Province shall not sell betel nut products with food packaging and labels."
The output value of betel nut industry is nearly 100 billion
Has been banned from advertising on TV and online audio-visual programs
The Red Star Capital Bureau learned that betel nut is a tropical plant mainly grown in Hainan, Yunnan, Fujian and Taiwan.
It is worth noting that Hunan does not produce betel nut, but it is a large province of betel nut consumption, because it is the main processing place of betel nut.
The output value of China's betel nut industry has reached nearly 100 billion.
According to the "China Market Supervision News" data, from 2011 to 2018, the output value of China's betel nut industry rose from 55.8 billion yuan to 78.1 billion yuan, and continued to rise.
Taste King Group, a leader in the betel nut industry, said in 2018 that it would develop Taste King into a 100 billion enterprise in the next decade and go global.
It is worth noting that betel nut has a huge risk of causing oral cancer, and the state has also introduced relevant policies to curb the sales of betel nut.
On September 17, 2021, the State Administration of Radio and Television expressly prohibited the act of "using radio, television and online audio-visual programs to promote and sell betel nut and its products".
However, Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng also told the Red Star Capital Bureau that this restriction has little impact on the entire betel nut industry, because betel nut is an addictive product, and people who eat betel nut are basically its heavy fans.
Now betel nut products have been requested to be taken off the shelves by local market supervision bureaus, or the pause button has been pressed for this industry with an output value of nearly 100 billion.
Red Star News reporter Yu Yao Zhang Luxi