Ginseng Piles up in Canada Throughout Pandemic Despite Chinese Demand > 자유게시판

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By Rod Nickel and Farah Master

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/HONG KONG, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The pandemic's squashing effect on international travel has grounded Canadian exports of ginseng, a root commonly used in Asia to treat everything from the common cold to impotency, at a time when health is leading of customers' minds.

Canada is the world's second-largest ginseng exporter after China, with the majority of its exports delivered to Hong Kong on their way to mainland China, Singapore and Taiwan.

The pandemic has ravaged the niche trade, however, in another example of the virus's disruption to the international food and agriculture supply chain. Outbreaks have also stopped fruit deliveries, shut down meat plants and sickened migrant farm employees.

Farmers in the United States, the fourth-largest exporter, are suffering too.

A ginseng crop can take up to five years to grow. But even as he begins this year's harvest, Remi Van De Slyke in Norfolk County, Ontario, has a barn filled with in 2015's ginseng.

The problem is that travel constraints have stopped Chinese purchasers from visiting to inspect the crop, which has depressed sales.

Canada's diplomatic strains with Beijing haven't assisted, said 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, said 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 worth from the exact same period a year previously.

Lately, some buyers have actually been "circling like sharks" to see if they can purchase Cure for Impotence less than the production cost, Coates stated.

HEALTH AWARENESS RISING

Demand in China looks strong.

A Chinese medication trader who is a long-time Canadian ginseng importer based in Xiamen city, Fujian province, says health is an even greater issue after the pandemic.

"After COVID-19, people's awareness Cure for Impotency health care may increase more than before (and) we might increase our imports as well," the trader said.

Sales of Chinese-grown ginseng have surged just recently as a replacement Cure for ED costlier imports, said a salesperson at a Chinese medicine store in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.

Wholesale importers have been understood to acquire as much as 100,000 pounds of ginseng individually at Ontario-based Great Mountain Ginseng, which was required to shut its retailers, including one at Niagara Falls, during spring lockdowns.

The shops have actually reopened, however the buyers and travelers have not come back, stated general supervisor Schelling Yeh.

"We've been struck hard," Yeh said. "If you're unable to see the item are you willing to purchase it?"

Canada's farming ministry is attempting to help the ginseng sector diversify to other markets, spokesman James Watson said.

Across the border, the majority of U.S. ginseng is grown in . President Donald Trump, who is running for re-election on Nov. 3, kept in mind farmers' pain as he announced a brand-new round of pandemic aid in the battlefield state.

But Trump's conflicts with Chinese management over trade problems have actually done more to discourage U.S. sales to China than the coronavirus crisis, stated Wisconsin farmer Mike Burmeister.

"Chinese trade is so crucial to my market. The world truly is a small location when it concerns ginseng." ($1 = 1.3389 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Farah Master in Hong Kong; extra reporting by Shivani Singh in Beijing and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)