Korea's ginseng exports may run into serious trouble as Russia is pushing a U.N. wild-life protection body to include wild ginseng on a list of contraband items, the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry said yesterday.
Moscow has recently asked the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to put a ban on trading wild ginseng , which it said is disappearing in Siberia and
the Far East area. Officials here are worried about the Russian move, which, if approved by the CITES commission meeting on plants to be held in Australia June 7-11, would affect the nation's exports of cultivated ginseng . Seoul is concerned because both wild and cultivated ginseng have the same botanical name, "Panax Ginseng , C.A. Mey."
According to government figures, Korea has exported cultivated, not wild, ginseng worth some $100 million abroad each year.
"In case the CITES regulates 'Panax Ginseng , C.A. Mey' as a contraband item, Seoul will have difficulty in exporting its ginseng , even though it is not the wild but the cultivated species," a ministry official said.
The CITES now makes it mandatory that each country puts a strict control, like prior permission, on the exports of any contraband items.
He said that officials from several related ministries, including the Environment Ministry, held an emergency meeting at his ministry Thursday to prepare countermeasures against Russia's move.
The government have decided to have the Korean Embassy in Australia send a delegation to explain Seoul's stance on Russia's proposal at the forthcoming CITES commission meeting.
"We will ask the commission meeting to launch a joint research to protect wild ginseng before putting it on the contraband list," another ministry official said.
He also added that Seoul will insist on telling wild from cultivated ginseng during the CITES commission meeting.
Ginseng is one of the widely-used herbs for medicine in Asian countries such as China, Korea and Jaapan. Ruussia has recently expanded its exports of herbal root barks, called "ogapi" in Korean, which are sometimes used as an alternative for ginseng in prescribing Oriental medication.
BY : Jun Kwan-woo Staff reporter
1999.06.05
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Newsdesk