Wausau, WI, US, North Central --
Even as it strives to sort out apparent mismanagement that has stopped federal grants and forced budget cuts, the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin is trying to fulfill its mission of promoting state ginseng on the world market.
The Wausau-based board will by early next week send documents relating to its business with a Taiwan-based advertising agency to the federal Foreign Agriculture Service in an effort to explain $147,000 of grant money spent without proper documentation between 1992 and 1994. The FAS is a service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that promotes exports of U.S. agriculture products.
No further grants are available until the FAS receives documentation proving the money was spent properly, or until the Ginseng Board repays the money with about $23,000 in interest. The board placed Executive Director Ron Rambadt on administrative leave in March and hired Wausau accounting firm Wipfli, Ulrich, Bertelson in April to investigate the spending of grant money in Asia.
The problems come at a sensitive time. The price of U.S. ginseng , most of which is grown in Marathon County and sold in Asia, has fallen from more than $50 a pound to less than the cost of production.
The value of the entire crop has fallen from more than $100 million several years ago to $20 million or less today, some growers estimate. Most of Marathon Counts more than 1,100 growers agree they need aggressive marketing to build demand, and a fair system to help growers contact buyers.
But it is a struggle to serve those needs without the funding, Ginseng Board officials say.
The board's budget for the first half of 1998 is $183,900, down from about $322,500 for the same period last year, said Robert Romang, board president. To accomplish the marketing, funding of research and other functions required in the board's bylaws, the organization has been forced to tighten its belt.
"We're becoming much more fused an the job at hand," Romanng said. "We've got to ensure the growers' money is spent properly and that the job gets done."
For the first time, the board is reviewing every expenditure, member Jerry Petrowski said. The board owes growers that much, he said. Wipfli, Ulrich, Bertelson is conducting an open-ended investigation that will first explain how the FAS money was used, with results expected in July. After that, the accounting firm will dig into the rest of the organization's finances.
"The plan is to do the FAS part first, because the interest is mounting every day," Petrowski said. Then we're going to turn around and audit backwards and see what we find."
With production of North American ginseng rising, the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin must strive to grow markets for the crop. Marathon County once produced most of the ginseng grown in North America, but ginseng gardens in Ontario and British Columbia have increased output and surpassed U.S. ginseng production.
Still, markets can be found for Wisconsin growers, Romang said. Some are overseas, some in the United States. The root has long been considered an all-purpose health supplement in Asia, and American growers hope to prove the health benefits through scientific studies here.
The Ginseng Board might finance such a study soon, Romang said.
"It's just a fledgling market, but there's an extreme amount of potential because of the health consciousness of Americans," Romang said. "The baby boomers are wanting to live longer, run faster and do all the other things older people aren't supposed to do."
Germaine Heise, who grows and brokers root and makes ginseng products at Heise Wausau Farms, said she has confidence the board is on the right track, especially since four new members were elected last year.
The board has shown it wants to be fair by changing the practice for distributing trade leads, Heise said. In the past, leads were not available for all to see. Now they're out in the open at the Ginseng Board office.
"Once they get some of these problems straightened out, were going to have a good, sound board," she said. "The ones who are on the board now seem real honest and open about what they want to do."
BY : Chris Carroll
SOURCE : Wausau Daily Herald
1998. 06.
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