onlinegenericsforyou.com
By Rod Nickel and Farah Master
onlinehealthsupplier.com
WINNIPEG, Manitoba/HONG KONG, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The pandemic's crushing impact on global travel has grounded Canadian exports of ginseng, a root extensively utilized in Asia to treat everything from the acute rhinitis to impotency, at a time when health is top of consumers' minds.

Canada is the world's second-largest ginseng exporter after China, with many of its exports shipped to Hong Kong on their way to mainland China, Singapore and Taiwan.

The pandemic has devastated the niche trade, however, in another example of the infection's disruption to the global food and farming supply chain. Outbreaks have also stopped fruit shipments, closed down meat plants and sickened migrant .

Farmers in the United States, the fourth-largest exporter, are suffering too.

A ginseng crop can take up to 5 years to grow. But even as he begins this year's harvest, Remi Van De Slyke in Norfolk County, Ontario, has a barn complete of last year's ginseng.

The problem is that travel constraints have actually stopped Chinese buyers from checking out to check the crop, which has actually depressed sales.

Canada's diplomatic stress with Beijing have not helped, stated Van De Slyke, chairman of Ontario Ginseng Growers Association.

"Everyone is locked down and that's triggering us a huge issue," he stated. "We're struck in all instructions here."

Across Canada, as much as 1.8 million pounds, or 20% of last year's crop, stays unsold, stated Rebecca Coates, executive director of the Ontario growers association.

Canada shipped 354,305 kg worth C$ 11 million ($8.22 million)to Hong Kong from May through July this year as coronavirus infections peaked in Canada, one-third of the worth from the exact same duration a year previously.

Lately, some buyers have been "circling around like sharks" to see if they can buy Cure for Impotency less than the production expense, Coates said.

HEALTH AWARENESS RISING

Demand in China looks strong.

A Chinese medication trader who is a veteran Canadian ginseng importer based in Xiamen city, Fujian province, states health is an even greater issue after the pandemic.

"After COVID-19, people's awareness Cure for ED health care may rise more than previously (and) we may increase our imports too," the trader stated.

Sales of Chinese-grown ginseng have spiked just recently as a replacement Cure for Impotence costlier imports, stated a salesperson at a Chinese medicine shop in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.

Wholesale importers have actually been known to purchase as much as 100,000 pounds of ginseng separately at Ontario-based Great Mountain Ginseng, which was required to shut its stores, including one at Niagara Falls, during spring lockdowns.

The shops have actually resumed, but the purchasers and travelers have not return, said general manager Schelling Yeh.

"We have actually been hit hard," Yeh said. "If you're not able to see the product are you ready to buy it?"

Canada's agriculture ministry is attempting to help the ginseng sector diversify to other markets, spokesperson James Watson said.

Across the border, most U.S. ginseng is grown in Wisconsin. President Donald Trump, who is running Cure for Impotence re-election on Nov. 3, kept in mind farmers' pain as he revealed a brand-new round of pandemic aid in the battleground state.

But Trump's conflicts with Chinese management over trade issues have actually done more to discourage U.S. sales to China than the coronavirus crisis, stated Wisconsin farmer Mike Burmeister.

"Chinese trade is so important to my market. The world actually is a little location when it pertains to ginseng." ($1 = 1.3389 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Farah Master in Hong Kong