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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 niche trade, however, in another
example of the virus's disruption to the global food and agriculture
supply chain. Outbreaks have also stopped fruit shipments, 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 take 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 full of last year's ginseng.
The problem is that travel restrictions have stopped Chinese buyers
from visiting to check the crop, which has depressed sales.
Canada's diplomatic strains with Beijing haven't helped, said Van De
Slyke, chairman of Ontario Ginseng Growers Association.
"Everyone is locked down and that's causing us a big problem," he
said. "We're hit in all directions 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 shipped 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 same period a year
earlier.
Lately, some buyers have been "circling like sharks" to see if they
can purchase for less than the production cost, Coates said.
HEALTH AWARENESS RISING
Demand in China looks strong.
A Chinese medicine trader who is a long-time Canadian ginseng
importer based in Xiamen city, Fujian province, says health is an
even greater concern after the pandemic.
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"After COVID-19, people's awareness for health care may rise more than before
(and) we may increase our imports as well," the trader said.
Sales of Chinese-grown ginseng have spiked recently as a substitute for costlier
imports, said a salesperson at a Chinese medicine shop in Baotou, Inner
Mongolia.
Wholesale importers have been known to purchase as much as 100,000 pounds of
ginseng individually at Ontario-based Great Mountain Ginseng, which was forced
to shut its retail stores, including one at Niagara Falls, during spring
lockdowns.
The stores have reopened, but the buyers and tourists have not come back, said
general manager Schelling Yeh.
"We've been hit hard," Yeh said. "If you're unable to see the product are you
willing to buy it?"
Canada's agriculture ministry is trying to help the ginseng sector diversify to
other markets, spokesman James Watson said.
Across the border, most U.S. ginseng is grown in Wisconsin. President Donald
Trump, who is running for re-election on Nov. 3, noted farmers' pain as he
announced a new round of pandemic aid in the battleground state.
But Trump's conflicts with Chinese leadership over trade issues have done more
to discourage U.S. sales to China than the coronavirus crisis, said Wisconsin
farmer Mike Burmeister.
"Chinese trade is so important to my industry. The world really 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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