What are the Dendrobium officinale planting scams? The latest tricks revealed
Dendrobium officinale, as a rare medicinal herb, has always been ranked alongside lingzhi (Ganoderma lucidum), ginseng, and cordyceps as a premium Chinese herbal medicine. Wild Dendrobium officinale is a nationally protected plant in China. It clears while it tonifies, and tonifies while it clears. With its unique properties superior to other Chinese herbal medicines, it has become the “darling” of market consumers, and at the same time it has bred many planting scams. Let us take a look below at how to avoid being scammed when planting Dendrobium officinale!
Dendrobium officinale planting scams
The extremely low reproductive and survival capacity of Dendrobium officinale, combined with reckless harvesting and felling by people blinded by greed, has pushed Dendrobium officinale to the brink of extinction. With its unique properties superior to other Chinese herbal medicines, it has become the “darling” of market consumers. Seeing this opportunity, some profit-seeking people begin to stir into action, using “sweet talk” and so-called claims like “absolutely authentic Dendrobium officinale” and “we will definitely help you get rich” to deceive consumers and growers, thereby causing consumers and growers to develop a “fear of real versus fake.” At the same time, some unscrupulous merchants, generally newly established shell companies, use high-priced buyback as bait to lure growers into joining, with the aim of reselling seedlings at a high price.
How to avoid Dendrobium officinale scams
1. Look at technical strength: no matter how promising any precious planting is, if it cannot survive or the yield is very low, it is futile.
2. Look at scale and strength: factory buildings, cultivation workshops, specialty stores, and planting bases are all manifestations of truly running a business and operating a physical entity.
3. Look at actual products: Dendrobium officinale planting enterprises generally also sell health products such as dendrobium and fengdou. Check whether their sales capability is real.
4. Look at the business license: check the date on the license, whether the company is newly opened, whether it is affiliated with other manufacturers, and whether the official seal belongs to the same entity as the planting base and pharmaceutical factory.
5. Conduct on-site inspections: growers with larger scale must conduct on-site inspections and check the enterprise's reputation.
6. Do not believe in guaranteed buyback: guaranteed buyback is indeed attractive to growers of precious Chinese medicines such as Dendrobium officinale, but even for fresh stems of Dendrobium officinale of the same variety, the annual purchase price fluctuates. Those claiming an extremely high guaranteed minimum price, offering buyback, and daring to sign a 5-year planting buyback contract are not highly credible.
Risks of planting Dendrobium officinale
1. High planting difficulty: although after more than 10 years of research and exploration, the artificial planting technology for dendrobium is basically mature. However, it is still very difficult for ordinary people to master skilled planting techniques in a short period. At present, planting techniques vary widely from place to place, and product quality and benefits also differ greatly. Planting failures also occur from time to time.
2. High investment risk: calculated on the basis of intensive greenhouse planting with an actual effective planting area of 400 sq m per mu, each mu requires 30,000 to 50,000 clusters of seedlings. Calculated at the current 2.5 yuan per cluster, the seedling investment requires more than 80,000 yuan. Adding the cost of greenhouses and other facilities, as well as 2 years of labor and management fees, the investment per mu exceeds 100,000 yuan. Once planting fails, the losses are severe. Such examples have also appeared many times.
4. Long production cycle: from tissue culture of seedlings to acclimatization of bottle seedlings takes about 15 months. In Dehong and other places in Yunnan where temperatures are relatively high, it takes 15 to 18 months for preliminary harvest. In some areas with lower temperatures, the harvest period requires 18 to 30 months.
5. Quality is hard to guarantee: China currently has as many as 76 dendrobium varieties, and even Dendrobium officinale alone includes several seedlings of different quality, such as hybrid species, place-of-origin species, soft-stem species, and hard-stem species, which are difficult even for professionals to distinguish. In addition, factors such as substrate selection, planting mode, fertilization, and pest and disease control all affect the quality of dendrobium. If the techniques are not mastered well, the quality of the planted product will be poor, and pesticide residues, heavy metals, and other substances may exceed standards, generally making it very difficult to sell.
6. Principle of authenticity of origin: although all are dendrobium, quality differs considerably depending on the planting location. At the current initial stage of the industry, consumers still do not attach much importance to place of origin. With the expansion of the market, the principle of authenticity of origin will be taken seriously, and dendrobium grown artificially in greenhouses in some places unsuitable for planting will lose the market due to reasons such as quality.
7. Unstable market conditions: due to the participation of enterprises in Zhejiang, Guangdong, and other places, the large one-time planting area, plus the impact of greenhouse planting quality, authenticity of origin, and various other factors, the Dendrobium officinale market is unstable, and later-stage benefits are difficult to predict.
Summary: to avoid falling into Dendrobium officinale planting scams, you must keep your eyes open. In addition to gaining a detailed understanding of the company brand, you must also strictly check the company's size, production and management technology, the quality of Dendrobium officinale seedlings, after-sales service, technical support, and other aspects.