On August 14, the inaugural 2026 Kunming International Expo for Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials and the TCM Supply Chain Conference grandly opened at the Kunming Dianchi International Convention and Exhibition Center. Spanning three days, the event will run through August 16. As a high-profile industry gathering covering the entire TCM materials value chain in Yunnan Province, the expo leverages the province's abundant resources of geo-authentic medicinal herbs and its profound heritage of ethnic traditional medicine. It aims to build a full-chain industry cooperation platform, drive the transformation and upgrading of the Yun Medicine industry, and steadily advance toward the goal of building a world-class modern TCM materials sector.
Covering nearly 20,000 square meters, the expo features a scientifically planned Yunnan Special Zone and four core exhibition zones: medicinal material supply, pharmaceutical production, warehousing and distribution, and supporting services. The exhibition comprehensively covers the entire industry chain, including herb breeding, standardized cultivation, deep processing, cold chain logistics, testing and traceability, and industrial finance, providing an all-around showcase of the latest trends and achievements in the TCM materials sector. The event has brought together over a thousand pharmaceutical enterprises and institutions from both within and outside the province, with local industry leaders such as Yunnan Baiyao, Kunming Pharmaceutical, and Yixintang all making prominent appearances. Meanwhile, TCM groups from multiple provinces and cities across China, as well as medical institutions from South and Southeast Asian countries including Nepal and India, have actively participated in the exhibition and conferences. According to the organizers, the event is expected to attract over 30,000 professional visitors for business negotiations and procurement, demonstrating significant industrial clustering and spillover effects.
In terms of programming, the expo has established an integrated event system encompassing exhibitions, conferences, business matchmaking, thematic seminars, and on-site study tours. The three-day schedule is staggered for a compact and highly efficient flow. On the opening day, August 14, key provincial investment promotion projects for TCM materials were officially launched, alongside dedicated production-sales matching sessions and the National TCM Materials Industry Development Conference. Notably, three digital platforms—the Shanghai-Yunnan Medicinal Garden Procurement Platform, the Yun Medicine Seed Industry Traceability Platform, and the Comprehensive Service Platform for the Medicine and Food Industry—were simultaneously launched on the opening day, accelerating the digital transformation of the industry. On August 15, the expo will host ten specialized thematic sessions covering core areas such as enterprise supply-demand matching, cross-border pharmaceutical cooperation between Yunnan and Macao, medical and pharmaceutical collaboration in South and Southeast Asia, the homology of medicine and food, and industrial risk control and financial empowerment, offering in-depth analyses of industry pain points and development opportunities. August 16 will focus on free exhibition tours and business negotiations, followed by a full industry chain study tour of Yunnan's geo-authentic medicinal materials after the closing ceremony, further extending the value of the expo. The series of events closely aligns with four key directions: policy implementation, technological iteration, production-sales integration, and investment promotion, bringing together think tanks and domestic and international industry resources to accelerate the commercialization of research achievements.
This year's expo highlights three pragmatic features, striving to deliver tangible benefits to all participants. First, it taps into resource advantages to enhance the Yun Medicine brand. The exhibition focuses on showcasing the standardized cultivation achievements of geo-authentic medicinal herbs such as notoginseng, gastrodia, and paris polyphylla, along with deep-processed ethnic medicine products. A digital Yun Medicine mini-program has also been launched to facilitate both online and offline sales, comprehensively boosting the market influence of Yun Medicine. Second, it opens up trade channels and establishes long-term mechanisms. Centered on the needs of centralized market procurement, the expo is committed to building trade channels for provincial cultivation, out-of-province distribution, and cross-border trade involving Yunnan, Macao, and South and Southeast Asia. By organizing dedicated matchmaking and signing sessions, it aims to build a long-term supply-demand matching mechanism. Finally, it adheres to a pragmatic orientation to ensure the implementation of cooperation. Eschewing empty forums, all seminar activities are paired with practical components such as project signings and base promotions, providing one-stop support to ensure the smooth execution of partnerships.
Taking this expo as an opportunity, Yunnan Province will continue to address shortcomings in the industry chain, extend the deep processing chain, and cultivate the public brand of Yun Medicine. Looking ahead, Yunnan will deepen the integrated development of the TCM materials industry with modern agriculture, biomedicine, and the digital economy. It will continue to expand both domestic and South and Southeast Asian markets, striving to build a world-class modern TCM materials industrial cluster and injecting strong momentum from Yunnan into the high-quality development of traditional Chinese medicine nationwide.