Feature: American ginseng farmer anticipates bigger market share in China through import expo

Source: Xinhua| 2019-10-22 15:48:09|Editor: Li Xia
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by Xu Jing, Miao Zhuang

CHICAGO, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Jiang Mingtao, a ginseng grower in Marathon County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, carefully fixed an 18-year-old wild ginseng into a gift box.

He will bring this ginseng to the second China International Import Expo (CIIE) scheduled to be held in Shanghai, China, on Nov. 5-10.

Jiang plans to put on display at the upcoming expo wild ginseng and grown ginseng gift boxes, ginseng cosmetics, and ginseng liquor. All ginseng products to be displayed have been shipped to China in advance. He will just take some freshly unearthed wild ginseng with him.

"All is ready except for the opportunity," Jiang said ardently.

Jiang has reached agreements with some large electronic business platforms, large drugstores, and national chain pharmacies in China recently, and is eager to clinch these agreements back in China during the expo. Moreover, he can sell out all the exhibits, as he did at the first CIIE last year.

"I didn't have much knowledge of the expo then. But when I went there, I found it is a state project, and the government has organized buyers from all over China to make purchases."

Jiang hopes to make breakthroughs in exploration of Chinese market at this year's expo.

Riding the wave of the economic growth and ever-improving people's living standards in China, Jiang launched the Marathon Ginseng International Inc. in 2010, and targeted the Chinese market from the beginning. By 2015, the company had exported half of its production to the Chinese market.

As the U.S.-initiated trade disputes unfolded, the tariff China imposed on American ginseng soared to about 50 percent as a result of China's retaliatory measures.

"There is only one month to go before the ginseng harvested this year will go to the market, but ginseng farmers here still have a lot of stocks left over from 2018," Jiang told Xinhua. "If a merchant or a farmer has two years' harvest in hand, his capital flow will break."

Jiang pins great hope on the trade negotiations between the two countries.

"Cooperation is a win-win for China as well as for the United States, and trade war is hurting both," Jiang stressed. "It is hurting the consumers as well as the producers."

Jiang newly bought six acres of land and sowed ginseng seeds in the piece of land a week ago. He and his fellow workers are busy piling in the land, in an effort to ensure healthy growth of ginseng. In the intervals, he would scatter straws to bared land to prevent deer and pheasants from eating the seeds sowed.

"We have the best ginseng products in the world, and China Import Expo has provided an platform for us to bring the world's best ginseng products to the Chinese consumers," said Jiang, expressing his hope that the expo will be organized better year by year, and "our business in China will grow bigger and bigger through the platform."

"I am ready to attend the third China Import Expo in 2020," he added. Enditem

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