SIMCOE -
Ginseng was once the second-largest export in Canada. Today, Ontario farmers hope to bring it back.
"We're trying to develop direct trade and find new markets," says George Rapai, president of the new Ontario Ginseng Co-operative.
The co-op will sell 157,500 kilograms of North American ginseng this year and 337,500 kilograms next year to Giant Explorer, an independent company based in Shenzhen, the Special Economic Zone in Canton, China.
As a point of fact, North American ginseng is similar to the ginseng grown in Asia. First Nations have used the root, which grows wild in deep woods, as a medicine for centuries; and
Jesuit priests near Quebec city recognized ginseng 's value around 1715 and began exporting it to the Orient.
At one time, ginseng was second only to furs in value as an export from Canada. Currently, about 1,600 hectares are under cultivation in Ontario, much of them in the tobacco belt around Simcoe. Ginseng fields are easily distinguished, however, by the shades erected to simulate the lighting conditions in forests.
Rapai and other members say the co-op, which was founded earlier this year and includes 126 of the 350 growers in Ontario, was formed for several reasons.
The price of ginseng has fallen from around $35 per 0.45 of a kilogram 10 years ago to $12 because today there are more ginseng growers in Ontario as well as British Columbia and state of Wisconsin.
Among other expectations, members hope the co-op can stabilize prices.
Before the co-op began, Asian families with members in both Hong Kong and across Canada would come to the farms here and buy ginseng directly, a deal often done with a handshake. The system worked well until the Hong Kong distributors began having trouble getting payments from customers hurt by the Asian economic crisis.
Rapai says China now has a 45 per cent tariff on ginseng imports. Meanwhile, growers say the co-op will provide a uniform standard for grades of root, which varry in price according to age and size.
Ginseng producers are optimistic they will see more growth.
"When you've got 1.5 billion people (as China does), it's just a question of finding someone to distribute it," says Bill Broda, the former head of the Ontario Ginseng Growers Association.
Most growers ship the dried root and let manufacturers in Asia, where labour costs are lower, conduct the value-added processing of turning the ginseng into pills and other products, Rapai says.
Keith Rainey, a second-generation ginseng farmer in Scotland, Ont., located between Brantford and Simcoe, is the exception. He produces several ginseng products, such as maple and ginseng candies, skin-care products and teas. He also offers tours and sells his ginseng directly to his visitors, most of whom are Chinese Canadians. As well, the much more valuable wild ginseng is gathered for him by people of the First Nations.
But one big question remains for those Ontario growers trying to raise ginseng 's prominence.
Why doesn't ginseng grow well on land that had ginseng on it 100 years ago?
Tom Francis of the chemistry department at the University of Toronto suspects it's because residual spores from fungus survive in the soil and attack the immature plants.
In Chinese traditional medicine, Francis adds, North American ginseng is yin or cooling. Asian ginseng is yang or warming.
He says published research from the west indicates that substances in ginseng can help diabetes, cold resistance and memory loss in rats.
Such research may help North American farmers increase the price of their crop and the amount exported.
BY : Mark Bellis - SPECIAL TO THE STAR
SOURCE : The Toronto Star
1998. 08.
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