View of a farm in Wisconsin, the US. File photo: VCG

View of a farm in Wisconsin, the US. File photo: VCG

Inset: Farmers stand in front of their farm in rural Wisconsin, the US. File photo: VCG

Cliff Cebula was living a quiet life after his retirement in a white-brick house on top of a hill overlooking 10 acres (4.4 hectares) of land in Marathon County in the US state of Wisconsin, until Jiang Mingtao, a doctor-turned-ginseng-farmer, came to him with a proposition three years ago.

Born and raised on a dairy farm in the county, Cebula had never tried his hand at growing ginseng.

But when Jiang approached him asking if he was willing to plant ginseng on his land, Cebula was more than happy to say yes.

Ginseng has been grown in Wisconsin for more than a century, and the state is the major producer in the US, accounting for 95 percent of the country's output. At the industry's peak, there were some 1,500 ginseng farms in the state.

After the boom in ginseng growing in Canada in the mid-1990s greatly pressed the market space for Wisconsin ginseng, the number of ginseng farmers in the state quickly dwindled to some 180, and the annual output is now around 500 tons, only 10 percent of the world's total output.

Jiang brought a breath of fresh air into the state's ginseng industry. Riding the wave of China's economic growth and ever-improving living standards, Jiang launched Marathon Ginseng International Inc in 2010, targeting the Chinese market right from the start. By 2015, the company was exporting half its production to China.

"We entered the Chinese market in 2012 and began selling ginseng on the Shanghai SMG-CJ Homeshopping platform in 2015. We opened a sub-company in Beijing in May this year, and we plan to open another sub-company in the Chongqing Free Trade Zone in the near future," Jiang said.

Kirk Baumann and his younger brother run the biggest ginseng farm in Wisconsin. Serving on the Wisconsin Ginseng Board, Kirk has traveled extensively in China.

"I've traveled to China three times a year since 2002, promoting Wisconsin ginseng... Then I got off the [ginseng] board and started traveling on behalf of Baumann Ginseng now in China, promoting all of our sales directly into China, so we don't flood the market in the US and are able to keep the price," said Baumann, adding that he had last returned from China two months ago, after a one-week trip.

"We produced about 200,000 pounds [91,000 kilograms] and exported 180,000 pounds [81,600 kilograms] to our customers in China last year. We also did buy from the local people in Wisconsin probably around 80,000 pounds [36,000 kilograms] of products to fill our needs for the export market in China," Baumann said.

High reputation

Chinese people have consumed ginseng for a long time, and the country is a world-leading ginseng consumption market. Wisconsin ginseng has a high reputation in China. In 2017, the state exported $14 million worth of ginseng to China alone, up more than 16 percent from 2016. Total US ginseng exports were valued at $30 million in 2017, and China was the biggest buyer.

"We're a very small part [of China's consumption], but at the very high-end and high quality," Baumann said with pride.

"Everybody knows the state of Wisconsin is a place to produce [ginseng]. There's very good soil for ginseng. It's well drained, it's like a sandy loam type soil, good drainage and very fertile soil," Cebula said.

Cebula helps Jiang with the ginseng garden now. "There's a lot of work involved looking after the plant. It's got to be sprayed a couple of times a week, you want to make sure it's covered and got some drainage so a lot of water doesn't go into it. There's always something to do."

Jiang has just returned from the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai, where he displayed his Monken Garden brand ginseng gift boxes, ginseng cosmetics, ginseng liquor and ginseng extract tonics.

"I got acquainted with many [Chinese] businesses and clients, and they for the first time had a taste of Wisconsin ginseng. We signed letters of intent on cooperation," said Jiang, with evident satisfaction.

"I had a better understanding of the Chinese market through the expo," Jiang said. "China is now the world's second-largest economy, promising huge opportunities to the world as well as to ginseng farmers in the US. We hope the US and China will coexist peacefully to the benefit of the mankind," he added.

Baumann is thinking of this year's harvest. "It looks like we will be able to sell all our products into China. We're just getting the large pharmaceutical chains into US ginseng, so that will be more of an opportunity."