Star anise is indigenous to south-east China. About 80-90% of the world’s production is accounted for by China. Other major producers are Vietnam and India. There are two ripening cycles for star anise, and it is categorised accordingly. Spring star anise ripens between February and March, while the autumn one ripens from August to October. In china, Guangxi and Guangdong are the primary star anise oil producing regions. There is global demand for oil obtained from the leaf, while fruit oil hardly finds any buyers in the international market. Thus, farmers hardly distill fruit oil. Generally, orders are received for small quantities, thus suppliers maintain leaf oil volumes in the range of 4-5 tons. Only when there is confirmation of large orders do suppliers produce on the large scale. Currently, there is low yield of star anise oil. Price is also declining due to limited demand in the market.