China News Service, Xining, June 27th, title: Qinghai "soft gold" Cordyceps sinensis is on the market: bargaining in the traditional sleeves, live broadcasts bring the goods and invite people to try them
China News Agency reporter Zhang Tianfu
Spread newspapers or a piece of cloth on the ground, and "soft gold" Cordyceps is piled or spread on it. Vendors are waiting for customers to patronize.
This is the scene in the largest Cordyceps trading market in Qinghai Province.
Right now is the time when the fresh Cordyceps is on the market. A reporter from China News Agency visited the aforementioned Cordyceps market called Jiuying in Xining City, Qinghai Province, and found that unlike the market outside the market, there was a lot of people and busy trading.
The annual output of Cordyceps sinensis in Qinghai Province is about 100 tons and the annual output value is approximately RMB 18 billion. The output accounts for more than 60% of the total output of Cordyceps sinensis in China. Millions of farmers and herdsmen in this province benefit from the Cordyceps industry.
Wang Liqiang from Menyuan Hui Autonomous County, Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, piled Cordyceps sinensis wrapped in a layer of original soil on a piece of cloth.
"The output of Cordyceps sinensis this year is a little higher than last year, and the price has dropped a little," Wang Liqiang said. "This fresh grass with soil costs more than 4,000 yuan per catty. If it can't be sold, it can be sold in the sun in the future. Sell for around 30,000 yuan."
Unlike Cordyceps wrapped in soil, Ma Jincai, who has been in the Cordyceps business for 40 years, puts the classified fresh cordyceps into a transparent tube of the thickness of cigarettes, and then packs and seals them in five-tube units. They will be delivered to customers soon Early adopters.
"Cordyceps sinensis is different in size and appearance, and the price varies greatly. The most expensive bag can sell for hundreds of yuan, and the cheapest is only 20 yuan." Ma Jincai said.
Unlike in the past, when women were hired to use brushes to brush the soil, Ma Jincai uses a fully automatic quick cleaning brush, or chooses a washing method to remove the soil from the Cordyceps sinensis.
"In the past, people loved to eat Cordyceps hay. In the past two years, fresh grass of Cordyceps has become popular, and fresh grass sells faster than hay." Ma Jincai himself is indispensable to three cordyceps daily. "Fresh grass will not deteriorate even if it is refrigerated for a few months. You can eat and take as you go."
A reporter from China News Agency saw in the market that the thickness of top Cordyceps is comparable to that of cigarettes, but it is rare, while the low-grade Cordyceps is densely packed, which is similar to the thickness of a match.
When vendors bargain with customers, buyers and sellers use traditional Chinese merchants to "handle" the price, or under the sleeves, under the placket, or covered with towels to "compete" the price. Onlookers are hard to predict the transaction price.
If the transaction is concluded, the merchants will put carefully selected cordyceps in a plastic bag after paying the money, and leave with the bag.
Ding Shijun, 32, called himself a "Tao merchant walking on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau." "Our hometown is Lintan County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province. This place was called Taozhou in ancient times. Hundreds of years ago, Taozhou people came out to ask for a living. Open stores and sell department stores on the Qinghai-Tibet line and Sichuan-Tibet line to do business."
But unlike the grandfather’s generation of Tao merchants when they were doing department store business, they bought Cordyceps “part-time” in the original places of Qinghai and Tibet. When the generation of Tao merchants of Ding Shijun, with the popularity of Cordyceps, he established Qinghai Shanzhibao Trading Co., Ltd. to specialize in Cordyceps. Can carry more than 2,000 catties a year.
“Most of our Cordyceps is wholesaled to Guangzhou, where it is a distribution point, and then retailed by local customers to coastal provinces and cities such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Fujian, or Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan,” said Ding Shijun. “People over there love to cook soup, and the economic conditions are relatively good. One point, can afford to consume Cordyceps."
As a younger generation, Ding Shijun opened an online store, but the effect was not good, and he still returned to the offline traditional wholesale business.
But now that live webcasts are very popular, Ding Shijun hung up "hero posts" at the entrance of the store, "We invite Internet experts with resources to live broadcast the goods, and we dry the grass, dry, and pack the rough work, so that it can be visually displayed. All aspects of Cordyceps when it goes on the market. If we take the goods to the seller and sell it, we will share it."
At present, artificially cultivated Cordyceps has sporadically appeared on the market.
A research team of Cordyceps sinensis from Qinghai stated that as the global market demand for Cordyceps sinensis continues to increase, it is expected that the artificial cultivation of Cordyceps in the place of origin will reach a large-scale level in ten years, thereby increasing the income of farmers and herdsmen.
"Artificially cultivated Cordyceps is large and light, and we can tell at a glance whether it is wild or artificially cultivated," Ding Shijun said. "But the scarcity is more expensive, and we believe that the wild Cordyceps market will not be greatly affected." (End)