TOPIC: Selling fresh vs. dry?

Herbuyer wrote:

Regarding the definition of a \"sugar ring\" it sounds as if K_duce is familiar with the term so I will now yield the forum floor to one of our \" Expert Boarders\" for his explanation.

Looking forward to additional comment on these issues with the kindest regards,

all i can say is i learned my lesson at 9yrs old by trying to dry my sang using the backglass/solar method. Like you said there are no free lessons.

I must admit in theory you could be correct Hillhopper however this scenario is upside down at the moment
as it is the money they the importers, graders and retailers are willing to hold on to and not the roots they are happy to sell.
They are more than willing to sale based on a reasonable profit margin and replacement costs same as any smart businessman.
Believe what you may folks as many of you have long since spent the money you so eagerly accepted for your root last season.
The same roots our customers are holding today.

I agree totally, herbuyer. They control the release of root to market and also how much they pay. Too much root comes in early at a low price,then no reason to up the offers. Early season selling is for those that need the money immediately. If I needed money urgently and headed to a pawn shop with an item, im screwed before I walk in the door because I'm the one in a pinch, I'm the one that came to them and that is the problem.
If a dealer is backed by his buyer then he is under their control(your basically an agent). Given the volatility of this market, I don't think the dealer makes enough if he is risking his own money. I damn sure ain't going to invest $900 to make $50. Catching pounds early when the market is in an upswing is a different story
I'm a business owner myself but if I were only clearing a 3-10% profit for my efforts and investment I would be broke. I might as well be a door greeter at Walmart.

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Herbuyer wrote:

Whether a person sales fresh or dry it is again they're choice not mine.

I handle both and mostly dry as the dry market is much larger overall.

Pardon me for using the word \"saturated\" so loosely and let's just assume for a while that a very large sector of the overseas market has plenty of inventory and chooses to wait it out a while and see how the harvest unfolds before risking more capital investment.

herbuyer,
It always seems easy for the dealers to say the overseas buyers are waiting out it out because they are saturated, but how would the overseas market know how the harvest is going? Where would they get this information in the first place? Not trying to pick a fight my friend but that assumption is not holding water with me. Me thinks the problem lies with in the stateside brokers and most of the holding is being done here not there.
I suppose one could spend the time to do some record searching using the freedom of information act and see who is holding over their sang, should be public record.

Hillhopper wrote:

! Its not flooded, its held back if anything and being price set. And, that's only if there actually is an excess. There might not be one single wild root left to buy in China at the moment but do you think they want the digger or local dealer to know that?

I would only add one point to the discussion....nothing is worth more than someone is willing to pay for it at any given moment.

So, whether the international dry market is saturated or being held up and price set is really not the issue. The true issue is whether the international buyers are willing to spend their money to buy our wild ginseng and at what price. The buyers (at every level) here cannot continue in business if they are paying more for root than they can sell it for ...no matter how upset the 'digger activists' become.

what exactly spurred this conversation, are we getting really low prices being quoted that I haven't heard about other then some early quotes for green sang like
$175 lb where the market is just opening because they probably just don't have any good knowledge of the sang futures and are just throwing that number out there....

There are like 120 dealers in Ky. mostly over towards Virginia and W.Virginia.
Most of the new dealers fall by the wayside once they find out it's not easy. Especially when they lose money. One lady had bought 20 lb. of cultivated woodsgrown, tricked into thinking it was wild.
Every year you will see new and different names thinking they are going to make a lot of money. You better be prepared to spend some money or stay out of the business is all I can say.

1 other thing to consider, I am friends with a man from Korea, and another from China, both of whom live here but have immediate family back in those countries they they speak to regularly. I've spoken with both of them about the \"precious American ginseng root\". The demand for ginseng in Asia falls to the wealthy, and the over 60 years old group. These people are growing older, and their beliefs in this root will die with them. Asians under 30 years old, especially college educated, do not have as strong a belief in the magical properties of roots from another country. Many Asian countries have peaked in population, and are starting to have decreased populations each year. The time will come when these roots will not hold value that rivals gold. Cash in while you can, I don't see this high dollar market lasting another 50 years. Asians will grow their own wild-simulated roots in their own soil to supply what little demand is left.

I don't mean to burst any bubbles, this is just my opinion.