Tag: international trade
U.S. Ginseng Has A Loyal Clientele

U.S. Ginseng Has A Loyal Clientele

By Frank Shyong, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES — One of the most popular holiday gifts in China is ginseng, stamped with an unusual guarantee: 100 percent American.

Few consumers are more faithful to American products than Chinese users of ginseng: the U.S. exported $77.3 million in ginseng roots last year, most of it to Hong Kong, and American ginseng fetches the highest price of any cultivated variety.

The Asian market prizes the American strain for its stronger flavor and high levels of the active ingredient that is said to unlock the root’s myriad but unproven health benefits.

The other part of the U.S.’ competitive advantage is favorable feng shui. Ginseng grown in North America is said to have a “cool” nature and calming effect, which means it can be taken daily; Asian ginseng is considered “hot” and must be consumed in limited quantities.

American ginseng is cheaper in the U.S. than in China. In the San Gabriel Valley, herbal stores cluster on streets near hotels popular with tourists, their shelves loaded with red boxes covered in quality seals and branded with American flags.

But an American flag is no guarantee of American authenticity, said Tom Hack, international marketing director for the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin, where he says up 95 percent of the U.S. crop is grown.

In a recent survey at an Asian food expo in Southern California, the board found that less than 12 percent of ginseng products labeled as Wisconsin ginseng actually came from Wisconsin.

Hack says American ginseng purchased in America is more likely to be Canadian, or …

Chances are, he said, the Chinese tourists “are taking Chinese-raised ‘American ginseng’ back with them.”

At Chung Chou City in San Gabriel, the heavy scent of dried herbs and seafood fills the air as an elderly customer sinks his hand into a barrel of sliced ginseng root. Manager Jeff Lin hurries over.

“Man man kan,” he says encouragingly. Take your time.

Ginseng is a boom-or-bust business, Lin said; sales jump when plane tickets are cheap and tourists from the Hilton hotel across the street are plentiful. Lin has noticed a slight increase before breaks in the school year, when Chinese students studying in the U.S. buy boxes to take home to their families. Ginseng is an especially prestigious gift to give for Christmas, Lin said.

Raw ginseng is available in several 60-pound barrels at the front of the store, but Chung Chou City also offers ginseng whole, chopped, powdered, in pills, or as candy or tea.

Thick roots are more valuable, and smooth, unblemished roots cost hundreds of dollars more. Wild, foraged ginseng commands the highest price, but American-grown ginseng is the most popular, Lin said.

Stores eagerly display their Wisconsin credentials. At Ten Ren Tea and Ginseng in Monterey Park, a gold-plated plaque with the words “Wisconsin Ginseng Export License” hangs over the counter. Other stores offer glossy pamphlets describing company-owned-and-operated ginseng farms in Wisconsin.

It’s a highly profitable industry in which even a few small sales can put a store in the black. At one store, the most expensive roots were selling for up to $9,000 a pound.

Around this time, in the days after the Lunar New Year, Wisconsin’s ginseng farmers are overrun with orders from Chinese suppliers trying to restock after the holiday rush.

Sales have been strong the last few years, and farmers have sold out their whole inventory, said Hack of the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin. In 2013, the board and Beijing-based Tong Ren Tang signed a 10-year, $200-million deal to sell Wisconsin ginseng in China.

But over the last two decades, Wisconsin farmers have watched their market share sharply decline thanks to ginseng piracy and brand dilution, Hack said.

As proof, he offers some math. Wisconsin produces about 700,000 pounds of ginseng a year — 95 percent of the American crop, according to the Ginseng Board. About 80 percent of that is exported directly to Asia. That leaves roughly 140,000 pounds of genuine Wisconsin ginseng for distribution in the U.S. — a small fraction of U.S. sales.

U.S. ginseng suppliers typically aren’t selling Wisconsin-grown ginseng, Hack said, because so little of it is available in the domestic market. The U.S. imports a lot of ginseng for domestic use — about $31.3 million of it in 2014, according to WiserTrade, a research firm that compiles data on U.S. foreign trade.

Some of that imported ginseng could be marketed as Wisconsin-grown, Hack said. A few years ago, Wisconsin ginseng seeds were planted in Canada and China — both among the world’s leading ginseng producers.

Funded by assessments from ginseng farmers, Wisconsin’s Ginseng Board was formed in 1986. In 1991, it trademarked an official seal that would be stamped only on board-verified ginseng products.

But the seal was widely pirated, and the board sued several companies for trademark infringement.

Today, just seven distributors worldwide are authorized to use the seal. But ginseng suppliers are still counterfeiting American authenticity, Hack said.

In January, Wisconsin Ginseng Board officials flew to Southern California and inspected dozens of Wisconsin-branded ginseng products at the Asian American Expo in Pomona. Hack says less than 12 percent of the products were actually from Wisconsin.

Hayward-based Prince of Peace is one of just two authorized distributors of Wisconsin ginseng in the U.S. The company distributes about 80,000 pounds of the product a year, said Billy Poon, general manager of its Asian market division.

They package their ginseng in distinctive peach-colored boxes printed with an endorsement from former pro tennis player Michael Chang. But even their packaging has been pirated, Poon said.

Hack declined to comment on whether any lawsuits were pending against Southern California companies, saying only that cease-and-desist letters had been sent based on their findings at the Pomona event.

Wisconsin’s ginseng industry has shrunk dramatically thanks to plummeting prices, Hack said. At one point, there were 1,500 growers producing 2.2 million pounds of ginseng a year. Today, about 180 growers produce about 700,000 pounds annually.

“We don’t get a fair shake,” said Joe Heil, a Wisconsin farmer who has cultivated ginseng for 22 years. Imported ginseng “is mislabeled, it’s snuck in. The Chinese (who) are bringing it in laugh about it.”

On Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park, Joe Lin, owner of Chang Le Xin Hui Group, munches on Hainan chicken as he oversees an empty store.

An immigrant from China’s Fuzhou province, Lin opened three years ago, and his business has grown slowly. Competition is fierce; within a few blocks of his store, about a dozen others compete for tourist business from the nearby Lincoln Plaza hotel.

Down the street, a box of American-labeled ginseng was going for $10. At the Yuen Fong Sum Yong Trading store in neighboring San Gabriel, the deal was buy one box, get one free.

“There are too many ginseng stores,” Lin said. “We Chinese people always do this _ as soon as something makes money, everyone copies it.”

(c)2015 Los Angeles Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Image: American ginseng that is being sold for $2,300 per pound at Shinsen Ginseng and Herbs, Inc. in San Gabriel, Calif. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Boom In Shipments Of Turtles Overseas Could Lead To Protective Measures

Boom In Shipments Of Turtles Overseas Could Lead To Protective Measures

By Chris Adams, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is proposing a new level of protection for certain freshwater turtles, concerned that a massive increase in overseas demand for the reptiles could hurt their long-term prospects.

The proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service involves four species: the Florida softshell, the smooth softshell, the spiny softshell and the common snapping turtle.

While none of the four species is at risk of extinction, federal officials and biologists say that a booming international trade in turtles had prompted concerns about the animals’ long-term survival. And existing laws, which vary from state to state, have not been completely successful in preventing the unauthorized collection and trade of the turtles, officials said.

“These turtles are suffering declines in large part because they are being collected in the wild and shipped overseas for food or pets or medicine,” said Collette Adkins Giese, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit conservation group that petitioned federal officials for the protective status. “Turtles are slow to mature, and their populations depend on having large adults. That’s what the turtle trappers are catching.”

According to Adkins Giese, turtle shells are used in traditional Chinese medicine, which ascribes great power to the turtle to purify the blood, cure diseases and bestow longevity or virility.

In its official proposal to list the turtles, the Fish and Wildlife Service documented a massive increase in softshell turtle exports over the past few years.

Among the Florida softshell, exports of live turtles were up 71 percent from 2009 to 2011, the most recent year included; a total of 367,629 live Florida softshell turtles were exported that year.

Common snapping turtles saw exports jump 24 percent — to 811,717 — over the same period. Exports of spiny softshell turtles, as well as snapping turtle meat, were also up.

Those numbers come from U.S. export records and are likely low, given that the Florida and other softshell turtles aren’t now listed, and so exporters aren’t legally required to declare turtle shipments by species. It’s also unclear how much of the trade is of turtles caught in the wild or of those raised on turtle farms, as many in Florida are.

“We don’t know how much is farm stock versus wild,” said Clifton Horton, a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service. “This listing may help us get this information as well.”

And there’s no question smugglers are doing whatever it takes to get the turtles outside the United States. Federal officials have been involved in cases in recent months where traders attempted to spirit out protected turtles — including a man in Detroit in August who federal officials said was caught with 51 turtles stuffed inside his pants as he entered Canada. Those weren’t Florida or other softshell turtles.

The Florida softshell turtle is found in all parts of the state, as well as in South Carolina, Georgia and southern Alabama. The harvest of them in Florida primarily comes from the southern part of the state and goes on year-round.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the capture of live freshwater turtles is tightly controlled, with a limit of one turtle per person per day from the wild for noncommercial use. According to the state, freshwater turtles can only be “taken by hand, dip net, minnow seine or baited hook,” and taking turtles with bucket traps or snares — or shooting them — is not allowed.

The action by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service involves listing the turtles in a special appendix to an international treaty aimed at protecting species from the negative effects of over-harvest for international trade. The listing includes animals that officials say are in need of international trade controls; U.S. officials want to list the four turtles to better monitor existing trade and ensure that it is legal.

Once an animal is listed, any international trade — live species, parts, products — will require a special permit signifying the animal was caught properly, according to state laws, and that it is being shipped humanely. Shipments of a listed animal will receive greater scrutiny than ones of a non-listed animal.

The permit process also will give federal officials insight into how many wild turtles are actually leaving the United States — information that could help officials manage the species’ long-term survival. The proposal is open to public comments before it is finalized.

Photo via WikiCommons

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Obama, Uruguayan President Discuss Trade At White House

Obama, Uruguayan President Discuss Trade At White House

By Chris Adams, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The president of Uruguay met with President Barack Obama in the White House on Monday, a meeting that centered on the nations’ mutual desires to boost trade and other aspects of their relationship.

In the meeting and remarks that accompanied it, Uruguayan President Jose Mujica Cordano and Obama talked about trade, United Nations peacekeeping operations, democracy and human rights. There were no major policy announcements.

It all started, however, with a dose of humor: “I will say the first thing he said to me was that my hair has become much grayer since the last time he saw me,” Obama said, according to the White House transcript of his comments.

Uruguay, nestled between Brazil and Argentina in South America, and its leader have been in the news lately due to the nation’s recent liberalization of marijuana laws.

Mujica, a former guerrilla fighter and a consistently colorful leader, recently signed rules that will allow for the cultivation of up to six marijuana plants per house; pharmacies will be able to stock government-approved marijuana.

Monday’s White House comments were heavy on trade. Saying he’s been “consistently impressed with the progress that Uruguay has been making under his presidency,” Obama added that, “We both think that there’s room for additional work to expand trade and commerce between our countries.”

Obama said he’d like to expand exchanges of teachers and students and that he wanted to hear “how we can strengthen the broad trends of democratization and human rights in the hemisphere.”

Existing trade between the countries has been getting healthier, according to the White House. Exports of U.S. goods to Uruguay totaled $1.8 billion in 2013, a jump of more than 400 percent since 2003.

Imports of Uruguayan goods to the United States were $423 million in 2013, an increase of 65 percent since 2003.

According to the White House, both countries expressed satisfaction with improvements in customs modernization. That includes the recent granting of access to Uruguay for U.S. poultry and beef, and access to the United States for Uruguayan citrus and deboned lamb.

Several other officials from both countries participated in the meeting, including Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

In addition to talking about Obama’s graying hair, Mujica spoke about his own age — and how he wished he might have seen a bit more of the United States.

“I am getting old, and to be old means you don’t want to leave home,” Mujica, who turns 79 in a week, said through an interpreter. “I would like to be a little bit younger, to see Mississippi, know the ranches — in Los Angeles, the milk farms, other things. But please convey a hug — I embrace all agriculturalists of this nation.”

AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski