GMCPaul wrote:On point 1 If so why is it perfectly acceptable for the Chinese to hold root for years before selling especially the rarer roots??
Those rarer roots aren't getting eaten. I don't know how they store them to avoid reduction in 'freshness', but suspect they freeze them. However, I can definitely see a lowering of quality in some of the ginseng that is held over. The damage is done to the meat of the root inside and is not always noticeable outside just by a casual glance.
In regards to point 2 in my looking into the export side of things and from what I learned from Michael Moore the head of the CITES permitting process once you apply for then can get a multiple export license you then request for your individual export permits for each harvest year being exported showing states purchased from with each single use export permit covering 1 year but each year being allowed to cover root from multiple states with multiple certificates of origin.
So you only have to apply for 2 permits if you were to handle 2013 & 2014 root both and the cost of the single use permits which were valid for I believe 6 months were like $5.00each
You do require 2 export license though if you wish to handle both wild & propagated though. With wild being a 1 year license for $50.00 renewal able yearly and the propagated being $200.00 initially valid for 3 years then renew able every 3years for $100.00
So the costs aren't really that high from what I can tell.
I think you are mostly correct there. Mike Moore handles the permits for the Division of Management Authority of the US Fish & Wildlife Service. We must have an export permit from them each year for wild root (good for one year as you noted). In addition, we must have a single use CITES permit for each shipment (good for 6 months as you noted). There are other permits required from the USDA also in addition to your state requirements.
So, to give you an example, we bought some root from a dealer yesterday. After the deal was made, I started the paperwork. When I got to that lot, there was a certification from February 2014 for a pound and a half of certified 2013 harvested root. I cancelled the sale on that certified root.
Think about it...
I have to treat that pound and a half as a totally different shipment even though it might be in a container of 100lbs. It must be separate, have its own 2013 CITES permit, I must renew my 2013 USF&W wild export license...and wait two months or more for them to arrive. Do twice the paperwork to export all for a pound and a half root for which we were about to pay $625. There was NO meat left on the bone for us and the dealer I'm sure already is taking a sound loss on it for holding it over from a high price year.
Now, another point that apparently from the comments cannot be stressed enough. Holding ginseng over from one year to the next without having it certified is a violation of the ginseng laws. When you go to sell it the next year, and sigh the forms that say you harvested it on such and such a day in the current year, you are not only violating the ginseng laws (in this case an M1 in Ohio), but also committing the crime of falsification (also an M1 here in Ohio).
