Ding Derong, a scientist with China's Southwest Agriculture University who has studied artemisinin for 30 years, said that 30,000 tonnes to 40,000 tonnes of the crop would be needed to meet that demand, but that only 20,000 were likely to be harvested.
"This is a very easy thing to plant and grow, but it is hard to cultivate good quality seeds," Ding said. "At first, farmers will choose cheap seeds over good ones. The result is there will be a lot of disorder."
Jiang Yifei, spokeswoman of the Holley Corp, the largest Chinese producer of artemisinin, said the biggest challenge in increasing production was "organizing farmers to start standardized cultivation."
Holley supplies the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis with artemisinin. Novartis uses the active ingredient from the herb to produce the drug Coartem, which it supplies at cost to the World Health Organization for distribution.
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