In September I was in the field observing the annual harvest of wild American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) in the Appalachians of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio. American ginseng roots, where diggers now get somewhere between $160-$550 a pound for dried roots, and upwards of $1,000+ for a single, select beautiful “green” or fresh root. Ginseng has been dug and sold from North America primarily to Asian markets for about 300 years, soon after its discovery by a French Jesuit missionary in 1715.
Today American ginseng international trade is monitored under the CITES Treaty (Convention for International Trade in Endangered Flora and Fauna) which has 150+ signatory countries. This is the same international treaty the regulates elephant ivory and big cat skins in international trade. Ginseng is in CITES Appendix II, which means it’s allowed in international trade, but paperwork and tracking are generated in order to “assure the survival” of the plant and I will add the unwritten phrase “in trade.”
American ginseng has to be at least five years old to be legally traded, which is determined by the leaf scars at the rhizome, or neck of the root, as each year it grows, the stem dies back to the ground and leaves a node, and by counting those nodes you can determine. On this trip I saw roots that were 40-50 years old coming into buying stations. The harvest season is determined by state agencies, but occurs after the plant has gone to seed so that the seed can be replanted.
Ginseng is not common in rich woods in the Arkansas Ozarks, since we are towards the southern edge of the plant’s range. The majority of root comes from Appalachia, particularly Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. Over 95% of the wild American ginseng harvest is exported mostly to China, though this year the Chinese market is down due to the tariffs on American imports. For the first time, Korean buyers are prevalent in the market purchasing the select fresh roots.
American ginseng has been monitored in international trade since 1975. The CITES treaty authority in the United States is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency these days where everything is “game” in international trade. If it were up to me, I would place a moratorium on wild ginseng harvest for at least seven years to give the populations a chance to recover. But because of its economic importance to a poverty-stricken segment of the population, ginseng conservation won’t happen until a new generation of sensible humans run the government.
Yes. All good things need time to regenerate and Rich countries are taking the best of the best of every resource for cheap. Ginseng has great medicinal value well beyond what China is buying it for. Let’s protect our resources.