Ginseng Accumulates in Canada Throughout Pandemic Despite Chinese Demand

By Rod Nickel and Farah Master

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/HONG KONG, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The pandemic's squashing effect on international travel has actually grounded Canadian of ginseng, a root widely used in Asia to deal with whatever from the acute rhinitis to Impotency Cure, at a time when health is top 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 method to mainland China, Singapore and Taiwan.

The pandemic has ravaged the niche trade, nevertheless, in another example of the infection's disturbance to the international food and farming supply chain. Outbreaks have actually also stopped fruit shipments, closed 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 5 years to grow. But even as he begins this year's harvest, Remi Van De Slyke in Norfolk County, Ontario, has a barn complete of last year's ginseng.

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

Canada's diplomatic stress with Beijing have not assisted, stated Van De Slyke, chairman of Ontario Ginseng Growers Association.

"Everyone is locked down and that's triggering us a huge problem," he said. "We're struck in all instructions here."

Across Canada, as much as 1.8 million pounds, or 20% of last year's crop, stays unsold, stated 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 worth from the same period a year earlier.

Lately, some buyers have been "circling like sharks" to see if they can acquire Cure for Impotency 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 higher concern after the pandemic.

"After COVID-19, individuals's awareness Cure for Impotence healthcare might increase more than in the past (and) we may increase our imports too," the trader stated.

Sales of Chinese-grown ginseng have increased just recently as a substitute Cure for Impotency costlier imports, said a sales representative at a Chinese medication shop in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.

Wholesale importers have been known to purchase as much as 100,000 pounds of ginseng separately at Ontario-based Great Mountain Ginseng, which was required to shut its retail shops, including one at Niagara Falls, during spring lockdowns.

The stores have actually resumed, but the purchasers and travelers have not return, stated basic supervisor Schelling Yeh.

"We have actually been struck hard," Yeh said. "If you're not able to see the item are you going to buy it?"

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

Across the border, many U.S. ginseng is grown in Wisconsin. President Donald Trump, who is running Cure for Impotency re-election on Nov. 3, noted farmers' pain as he announced a new round of pandemic help in the battleground state.

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

"Chinese trade is so important to my market. The world really is a small place when it concerns 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)