CBC NEWS:A farm in B.C.'s Okanagan 
that used to call itself the world's largest producer of ginseng is calling it quits in the face of low-cost competition from China. Chai-Na-Ta Farms Ltd. in Kamloops stopped planting the herbal remedy in 2005 and the company officially closed over the weekend as it auctioned off all of its equipment. Menno Schellenberg, manager of B.C. operations for the company, said B.C. ginseng has not been able to keep up with cheaper markets."It's really an international marketing issue," Schellenberg said. "China has started to grow a lot of acreage of North American species ginseng, and they're able to do it at a lower cost than we were, and basically forcing us out of their marketplace…Now there's only three growers left in B.C. after Chai-Na-Ta exits the scene." At its peak, Chai-Na-Ta employed over 200 people and farmed over 480 hectares of ginseng."We've had an excellent time of growing ginseng in excess of 20 years in the Kamloops area," Schellenberg said.
1 comment:
Interesting another NDP backed investment gone down the tube.
Mike Harcourt and the NDP after gave this firm a loan of approximately $5 million dollars He later becoming a director of the Chai-Na-Ta and will not likely not be extolling their business acumen now.
Mike Harcourt also became or presented himself as a Asia expert after he left office. My how the NDP failures continue.
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