By Rod Nickel and Farah Master

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/HONG KONG, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The pandemic's squashing effect on worldwide travel has grounded Canadian exports of ginseng, a root widely utilized in Asia to deal with everything from the cold to impotency, at a time when health is leading of customers' minds.

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

The pandemic has actually ravaged the specific niche trade, however, in another example of the virus's disturbance to the international food and farming supply chain. Outbreaks have also stopped fruit deliveries, closed down meat plants and sickened migrant farm employees.

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 filled with in 2015's ginseng.

The issue is that travel limitations have stopped Chinese purchasers from visiting to examine the crop, which has actually depressed sales.

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

"Everyone is locked down which's triggering us a huge issue," he said. "We're hit in all instructions here."

Across Canada, as much as 1.8 million pounds, or 20% of in 2015's crop, remains 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 very same period a year earlier.

Lately, some have actually been "circling around like sharks" to see if they can buy Cure for Impotence less than the production cost, Coates said.
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HEALTH AWARENESS RISING

Demand in China looks strong.

A Chinese medicine trader who is a veteran Canadian ginseng importer based in Xiamen city, Fujian province, says health is an even higher concern after the pandemic.

"After COVID-19, individuals's awareness Cure for Erectile Dysfunction healthcare might increase more than before (and) we may increase our imports as well," the trader said.

Sales of Chinese-grown ginseng have actually surged recently as a replacement Cure for ED costlier imports, said a sales representative at a Chinese medicine store in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.
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Wholesale importers have been known to purchase as much as 100,000 pounds of ginseng separately at Ontario-based Great Mountain Ginseng, which was forced to shut its retail shops, including one at Niagara Falls, during spring lockdowns.

The stores have actually resumed, but the purchasers and tourists have not come back, stated general manager Schelling Yeh.

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

Canada's agriculture ministry is trying to help the ginseng sector diversify to other markets, representative James Watson stated.

Across the border, the majority of U.S. ginseng is grown in Wisconsin. President Donald Trump, who is running Cure for Impotence re-election on Nov. 3, noted farmers' discomfort as he revealed a brand-new round of pandemic help in the battlefield state.

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

"Chinese trade is so essential to my industry. The world truly is a small place when it concerns ginseng." ($1 = 1.3389 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Farah Master in Hong Kong