Ginseng Piles up in Canada during Pandemic Despite Chinese Demand
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By Rod Nickel and Farah Master
WINNIPEG, Manitoba/HONG KONG, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The pandemic's squashing impact on worldwide travel has grounded Canadian exports of ginseng, a root commonly used in Asia to treat everything from the typical cold to Impotency Cure, at a time when health is top of consumers' minds.
Canada is the world's second-largest ginseng exporter after China, with most of its exports shipped to Hong Kong on their way to mainland China, Singapore and Taiwan.
The pandemic has devastated the specific niche trade, however, in another example of the infection's interruption to the worldwide food and farming supply chain. Outbreaks have actually likewise stopped fruit deliveries, shut down meat plants and sickened migrant farm workers.
Farmers in the United States, the fourth-largest exporter, are suffering too.
A ginseng crop can use up to five years to grow. But even as he starts this year's harvest, Remi Van De Slyke in Norfolk County, Ontario, has a barn complete of in 2015's ginseng.
The issue is that travel limitations have stopped Chinese purchasers from checking out to examine the crop, which has depressed sales.
Canada's diplomatic strains with Beijing have not assisted, stated Van De Slyke, chairman of Ontario Ginseng Growers Association.
"Everyone is locked down and that's causing us a huge problem," he stated. "We're hit in all instructions here."
Across Canada, as much as 1.8 million pounds, or 20% of last year's crop, remains unsold, stated Rebecca Coates, executive director of the Ontario growers association.
Canada delivered 354,305 kg worth C$ 11 million ($8.22 million)to Hong Kong from May through July this year as coronavirus infections peaked in Canada, one-third of the value from the very same duration a year earlier.
Lately, some purchasers have been "circling like sharks" to see if they can buy for less than the production cost, Coates said.
HEALTH AWARENESS RISING
Demand in China looks strong.
A Chinese medication trader who is a veteran Canadian ginseng importer based in Xiamen city, Fujian province, says health is an even greater concern after the pandemic.
"After COVID-19, people's awareness Cure for Impotency healthcare might increase more than in the past (and) we may increase our imports too," the trader said.
Sales of Chinese-grown ginseng have spiked recently as a replacement for costlier imports, stated a salesperson at a Chinese medicine store in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.
Wholesale importers have actually been understood to acquire as much as 100,000 pounds of ginseng separately at Ontario-based Great Mountain Ginseng, which was required to shut its retail stores, consisting of one at Niagara Falls, throughout spring lockdowns.
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The stores have reopened, however the purchasers and tourists have not return, said basic supervisor Schelling Yeh.
"We've been struck hard," Yeh stated. "If you're not able to see the product are you happy to buy it?"
Canada's farming ministry is trying to help the ginseng sector diversify to other markets, representative James Watson said.
Across the border, most U.S. ginseng is grown in Wisconsin. Trump, who is running for re-election on Nov. 3, noted farmers' discomfort as he announced a new round of pandemic aid in the battlefield state.
But Trump's conflicts with Chinese management over trade problems have actually done more to dissuade U.S. sales to China than the coronavirus crisis, said Wisconsin farmer Mike Burmeister.
"Chinese trade is so crucial to my market. The world truly is a small place when it comes to ginseng." ($1 = 1.3389 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Farah Master in Hong Kong; additional reporting by Shivani Singh in Beijing and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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