Is Growing Gastrodia Profitable? Latest Profit Analysis
Gastrodia, also known as red arrow, Duyangzhi, Limu, Helicao, divine herb, Guiduyou, Mupu, Mingtianma, Dingfengcao, Bailongpi and so on, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Gastrodia in the orchid family. Its rhizome is used as medicine to treat dizziness, numbness of the limbs, infantile convulsions and other conditions, and combined with Qiongzhen lingzhi (Ganoderma lucidum) to treat headache and insomnia. Let us take a look below at whether growing Gastrodia is profitable!
Gastrodia Cultivation Market Forecast
1. Gastrodia is a precious Chinese medicinal herb and a specialty of China. Gastrodia stewed with chicken tonifies physical weakness. Regularly eating Gastrodia porridge and stir-frying or boiling fresh Gastrodia like Chinese yam or potato, or stewing it, can strengthen the human body's antibodies and immune function, prevent visual disturbances, eye inflammation, dry skin, and loss of mucosal secretion capacity, and can resist certain respiratory and digestive infections, and treat and reduce the harm of headache, dizziness, arthritis, rheumatism, waist disease and other ailments.
2. Gastrodia can also protect the body's youthful vitality, prolong life, and prevent premature aging, with a particularly notable effect on treating headaches. In recent years, the number of manufacturers at home and abroad developing Gastrodia foods, Gastrodia drinks, Gastrodia health products, Gastrodia medicinal meals and Gastrodia medicines has been increasing day by day, requiring large quantities of supply.
Summary: Most countries around the world do not produce Gastrodia and can only import it from China. This has brought huge business opportunities to Gastrodia cultivation. It is expected that there will be no worry about sales for the next 10 years, while prices will rise steadily.
Suitable Regions for Gastrodia Cultivation
1. Gastrodia has no roots and no green leaves, and cannot carry out photosynthesis to produce nutrients. Instead, it lives symbiotically with Armillaria mellea, relying on Armillaria mellea to provide nutrients for Gastrodia's growth. It does not need sunlight to grow. From planting to harvest, it requires no fertilizer, no weeding, and no pesticide spraying. It only needs suitable manual regulation and management of temperature (temperature below 10 cm of the ground surface of 15-28 degrees C) and humidity (50-65%) to grow normally. Therefore, it does not compete with crops for land, fertilizer or nutrients, and is the “lazy man's golden industry” with the highest return rate among planting projects.
2. Gastrodia can be artificially cultivated in mountainous areas, plains, villages, and cities, whether indoors or outdoors, in fields, on balconies, in corridors, in cave dwellings, in tunnels, in air-raid shelters, and in barren mountain forest land, and can also be cultivated in a factory-based, modernized, standardized and industrialized manner. The raw materials use tree species that do not contain aromatic oils, such as those in the Fagaceae, Betulaceae, Rosaceae and Fabaceae families, including Quercus glauca, oak, white birch, water wintermelon, cherry tree, silk tree, chestnut tree, pagoda tree, poplar, elm, willow, and various fruit trees, etc. Their trunks, branches and leaves can all be used for growing Gastrodia. Fresh trunks (referred to as fresh wood sticks) and fresh branches are sawn into wood segments and branch segments respectively, and together with leaves are planted synchronously with Armillaria mellea spawn, Gastrodia spawn, and river sand (or sandy soil).
3. For Gastrodia, the natural winter planting season is from November to January of the following year, with a growth period of 9-11 months before harvest; spring planting is from February to May, with a growth period of 6-8 months before harvest. 1 sq m can produce about 10 kg of fresh Gastrodia. Calculated at the 2010 purchase price: fresh Gastrodia, according to size, at the lowest price of 30-40 yuan per kg, that is 30 yuan/kg, is worth 300 yuan. The small Gastrodia harvested can be used as Gastrodia spawn for continued planting. One introduction of spawn can allow cyclic planting for 2-3 years.
Economic Benefits of Gastrodia Cultivation
1. To plant 1 sq m, the Gastrodia spawn and Armillaria mellea spawn cost 70 yuan, 33 kg of fresh wood sticks cost about 10 yuan (including 30 kg of thick wood sticks with a diameter of about 4-8 cm and 3 kg of thin branches with a diameter of about 2-3 cm), 0.25 cubic meters of clean medium-fine river sand costs 10 yuan (sandy soil can also be used instead of river sand; if planted outdoors, this cost can be omitted), and labor and other costs are about 10 yuan, for a total investment of about 150 yuan. The yield of Gastrodia per 1 sq m is generally 10 kg. Calculated at the lowest purchase price of fresh Gastrodia of 30-40 yuan/kg, that is 30 yuan/kg, the output value is 300 yuan.
2. If fresh Gastrodia is made into dried product (drying ratio 4-4.5:1), the current lowest market price of dried Gastrodia is 160 yuan/kg, and the output value can reach more than 300 yuan. After subtracting the cost of 80 yuan and labor of 80 yuan, the net income per 1 sq m is more than 150 yuan. Then, for growing Gastrodia on 1 mu (667 sq m) of land, excluding drainage ditches and walking paths, the actual planting area is 500 sq m, which can yield a net income of more than 75,000 yuan. This is the income from commercial Gastrodia calculated according to conservative yield.
3. If the prices of commercial Gastrodia and Gastrodia spawn are calculated together, the income will be more than 1 times higher. Because among the 10 kg of fresh Gastrodia produced per 1 sq m, commercial fresh Gastrodia accounts for 70%, about 7 kg. Calculated at the lowest market price of 30 yuan/kg, 30 yuan × 7 = 210 yuan. Small Gastrodia, that is, first-generation Gastrodia spawn, accounts for 30%, about 3 kg. Calculated at the lowest market price of 80 yuan/kg, 80 yuan × 3 = 240 yuan. 210 yuan + 240 yuan = 450 yuan. 450 yuan - 150 yuan = 300 yuan, so the net income is 300 yuan. This is the rough cost estimate for the first year.
4. The characteristic of Gastrodia cultivation is that the cost is relatively larger in the first year, because everything has to be bought with money, so the investment is also relatively higher. The maximization of its benefits begins to appear from the second year. If production continues in the second year, the Gastrodia spawn does not need to be bought, and old fungal material can be used instead of Armillaria mellea, which can save half of the wood sticks (they can also be cultivated by oneself), and the sand used for planting can continue to be used. In this way, the cost in the second year is only the cost of fresh wood sticks, labor and other costs. Therefore, the cost is greatly reduced, and the benefits can increase by more than 10 times. The 3 kg of first-generation Gastrodia spawn harvested per 1 sq m can expand planting to 5-6 sq m.