THE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS - IFEAT

A VIEW OF MENTHOL DEVELOPMENT- FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SINGAPOREChih Lung ShihTien Yuan Chemical Pte Ltd.Singaporetienyuan_shih@yahoo.com.sgINTRODUCTIONIt is an honour for me to be invited to presentthe Medal Lecture at this prestigiousConference in Singapore. Allow me to extend avery warm welcome to all of you to Singapore!I joined Tien Yuan Chemical in 1980 as aManager and became the Marketing Managerin 1985 and have now been in the mentholbusiness for more than 27 years. Someone toldme the menthol business is a "wine and dine"business; that the menthol business seems to bean "easy" business to deal in. I would beg todiffer - I would say it is anything but an easybusiness.A VIEW OF MENTHOL DEVELOPMENT- FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SINGAPOREGATSBY SHIH C LTIEN YUAN CHEMICAL PTE LTDNov 2012In the last 27 years, I have encountered cases where menthol was traded at US$9 per kg, or evenlower. I have also seen menthol at US$80 per kg during 1996-97. Three years ago in 2009, during theIFEAT Conference in Shanghai, menthol was selling at just US$13-14 per kg. Earlier this year inMarch/April 2012, menthol prices moved up to US$65. Today, it's half of that price. This is what thementhol business is all about. Menthol is part of essential oils but it is different - a bit likecommodities but not as high volume a trade as commodities.Today's lecture on A View of Menthol Development from the Perspective of Singapore is made up ofseven sections:1. Singapore – the Jewel of Southeast Asia2. Fundamental Concepts of Agricultural Economics3. A Brief History of Menthol Development4. Menthol in China5. Menthol in India – and this will be the main focus of the lecture6. Recent Trends and Future Challenges7. Conclusions3