Industry Information
Ginseng has been a traded commodity since 1716, and Ontario has built a global industry based on production of this ancient herb.
Industry
A traded commodity in Ontario since 1716, Ontario’s ginseng has been taken to relieve stress, to help with digestive problems, energy problems and to treat the entire body/system. Ontario has built a global industry based on this ancient herb. The native aboriginal healers regarded ginseng as a spiritual symbol and gift from God, using it for centuries as a remedy for stomach and bronchial disorders, as well as asthma and neck pain. Today, the properties of Ontario’s ginseng have made Canada the largest producer of North American ginseng, with 3,395,119 million lbs (1,540,000 kg) exported in 1998.
Economic Impact
Overview
The sandy soil of the Norfolk plain where tobacco has thrived is perfect for cultivating Panax quinquefolius, or North American ginseng as it’s known to most of its buyers. Ontario is North America’s largest grower of ginseng, with more than 140 growers.
British Columbia grows a fair amount, but its harvest has been declining as well. It all makes sense when you consider that ginseng is native to Ontario, discovered here in the 1700s by Jesuit priests who then began to look for uses for the herb.
Production
Ginseng production has been increasing over the last 25 years, as the government’s support of tobacco has been declining. Ginseng is a capital-intensive crop, and a risky one, since there is no crop insurance, and no crop to harvest for the first three years.
Harvest
Ginseng root is harvested after three or four years: cleaned, dried and stored in barrels until it is sold. Harvesting has improved enormously with mechanical harvesters, allowing hand-sorting on the machines that are digging the roots. Much of the ginseng production process, however, is still people-intensive. At least 80 percent is sold to the Asian market overseas, where it is exported, processed and often shipped back as tea, pills and other products.
Global Marketplace
China, the largest market for Ontario’s North American ginseng, has been buying both root and seed, in order to build its own industry, hoping to replace ours eventually. That is a challenge the industry is preparing for through researching new uses in order to develop new markets.
Products
While most of Ontario’s ginseng is shipped as whole root and processed elsewhere (primarily China); some of Ontario’s growers produce value-added or prepared consumer products such as capsules, powder and candy. The OGGA is working with the federal government to build an extraction plant in southwestern Ontario to facilitate greater production of value-added products that can be marketed directly to the consumer—instead of shipping their root to China and watching it come back already processed as tea, fluid extracts, capsules, etc.
Some Canadian consumers prefer to buy their root at the farm gate. Ontario growers will package and sell their premium ginseng roots in one pound and five pound lots, for those who want to ensure quality, freshness and genuine Panax quinquefolius. Larger amounts must be sold through commercial brokers.