The former doctor, who had always wanted to run a business, operates a farm in Marathon County, a tract of the Midwestern state Wisconsin and the source of most China-bound ginseng, thanks to its cool climate and unique topsoil composition.
Not much else to grow
“Not much else to grow,” said Jiang, who started farming 14 years ago after obtaining a PhD in Canada and moving to Wisconsin to work as a university research fellow.
“I am hanging in with the government’s payroll protection plan and a small business loan from the government.”
Jiang might consider himself among the fortunate of Marathon County, which has a population of 138,000, as around 100 farmers have quit growing ginseng altogether, said Katie Rosenberg, mayor of the county seat of Wausau.
She said the normally US$20 million crop makes up a third of the agricultural county’s economy, with dairy and beef making up the remainder.
“It’s so typical to blast off on China in a way that’s not helpful,” Rosenberg said. “It hurts us to have a bad relationship with the world’s second-largest economy.”
Tariffs have fallen back to 32 per cent, but they are still higher than the pre-2018 level of just 7.5 per cent.
Beijing has long called for the removal of the US punitive tariffs and this issue could be raised when US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen begins a four-day visit to China from Thursday.Making shipments more expensive, the Chinese consulate in Chicago must also notarise ginseng exports from Marathon County, with more documentation rigours following at entry ports in China, Rosenberg added.
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An unwinnable conflict? The US-China trade war, 5 years on
An unwinnable conflict? The US-China trade war, 5 years on
Ginseng exporters are also required to use standardised shipping containers, she said, creating a burden for farmers with smaller shipments.
“It seems like there’s a lot of paperwork that’s bogging down this process,” she said.
Jiang has to spend an extra US$8,000 on packing materials for ginseng shipped via the port city of Shenzhen to end markets in China.
Neither the domestic ginseng market, even the ginseng beer that a local merchant has started making, nor interest in other ginseng-loving Asian countries can offset sales to China before the trade war, Rosenberg added.
US-China trade war timeline of key dates and events since July 2018
Wisconsin ginseng, mostly from Marathon County, had made a mark for its quality in the same vein as Bordeaux wine from France and Wagyu beef from Japan.
Rosenberg, Jiang and other growers in the county have targeted Capitol Hill in Washington to press lawmakers to resolve the trade dispute that has sparked tit-for-tat tariff increases covering US$550 billion worth of bilateral trade.
Rosenberg also spoke to the Office of the US Trade Representative and asked the Wisconsin state government for trade-war relief.
But Rosenberg, and the farmers who help her advocacy work, have found that distrust of China runs so deep in Washington that legislators will not push for any changes.
We need to have diplomacy, and that’s how we’ll succeed in our global economic landscape, and that’s not popular
“We need to have diplomacy, and that’s how we’ll succeed in our global economic landscape, and that’s not popular,” said Rosenberg, who advocates tariff cuts.
“I want these conversations to keep happening.”
Ginseng consumers in China link the root to traditional Chinese medicine, and many see American ginseng as a means to “expel heat”, according to a member of staff at the Crcare medicine shop in the busy Hong Kong shopping district of Causeway Bay.
The Eu Yan Sang traditional Chinese medicine shop, also in Causeway Bay, sells boxes of processed Wisconsin ginseng for HK$69 (US$8.8).
A saleswoman at the shop said the Wisconsin variety is sought after for its “strong but not bitter” flavour.
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American ginseng, though, is becoming harder to source due to world climate fluctuations, she added.
Trump initiated the trade war because of what he saw as “unfair” Chinese trade practices, such as limited market access, intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers.
Tariffs raised by China pushed US agricultural exports down by 53 per cent in value to US$9 billion in 2018 compared to 2017, the Congressional Research Service said.
The offices of lawmakers contacted about US-China trade ties did not return calls or emails, including Senator Marco Rubio and congressmen Brad Sherman and Mike Gallagher. The Wisconsin-based Ginseng Growers Association of America trade group also declined to comment.
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In Marathon County, Will Hsu’s 50-year-old, family-owned ginseng farm has cut staff by 40 per cent and has reduced the acreage planted by almost the same degree.
The Chinese tariffs and higher production costs in Marathon County have allowed Canadian and Chinese ginseng growers to take market share, he said.
Hsu said he has “talked to every US senator and representative who will listen to me”, but has been told that “we’re not talking to China”.
Hsu’s operation has switched its focus on “premium consumers” in China, who pay around US$200 to US$400 per kilogram.
Taiwan and Vietnamese markets may also eventually expand, said Hsu, who is of Taiwanese ancestry. Normal prices were around half the current level before the trade dispute, he added.
Hsu’s farm stays in business now by drying ginseng for other farmers, selling supplies and repairing equipment.
Jiang plans to keep his ginseng crop, and hopes for an eventual tariff reduction.
He plans to keep asking legislators for trade-war relief, but in the meantime, he has made his first shipments to South Korea and Japan.
Ginseng enjoys a similar reputation in both countries for its health benefits, but both lack the market size of China.
“We are looking for other avenues of distribution for our products,” he added.
