Orchids are hugely diverse and make up more than 70% of all CITES-listed species. However, large volumes of illegal trade in endangered orchid species continue. According to a 2019 study on the orchid trade in China, researchers found trade in more than 400 species of orchids collected from the wild, involving more than 1.2 million individual orchids, potentially worth more than $14.6 million USD – in just one year. The researchers found that wild orchids were often mixed with nursery-bred orchids, with traders paying cheap labourers in countries like Laos and Myanmar to harvest wild orchids. In fact, the researchers found that some 100 species of orchids being sold in the southern China markets were not native. There were also no declared imports in the CITES trade database for the majority of the species, rendering the trade in breach of CITES regulations.