Ground Beetle (Eupolyphaga sinensis) Prices in 2019, Whether They Will Rise in 2020, and Farming Prospects
The ground beetle is a fairly valuable medicinal material for treating bruises and injuries. Wild ground beetles are now very scarce, and most are farmed artificially, so how much is a jin of ground beetles in 2019? Will the price rise in 2020? What are the farming prospects?
1. How much is a jin of ground beetles in 2019?
According to the Chinese medicinal herb market prices in various regions, clean-water ground beetles are priced at 39 yuan per jin, and salt-water ground beetles at 33 yuan per jin. Of course, you still have to look at the price trends in each region. The average price across regional markets is around 25 yuan per jin.
2. Will ground beetle prices rise in 2020?
As a fairly traditional Chinese medicinal material, the ground beetle reached a high price in 2005, which then triggered a boom in ground beetle farming. However, affected by the low prices in 2010, the enthusiasm of ground beetle farmers was dampened. In addition, current farming techniques are fairly mature, the cost of artificial farming is low, ground beetles have strong reproductive capacity and are easy to raise, so prices have been continuously declining. As things stand now, ground beetle prices in 2020 should not rise by any relatively large margin.
3. What are the farming prospects for ground beetles?
The economic benefits of artificially farming ground beetles are relatively high. Each kilogram of ground beetle seed eggs contains 200,000 eggs, and each egg has 8-16 larvae, calculated at an average of 10, giving 200,000 larvae per kilogram of seed eggs. Calculating both the hatching rate and the survival rate at 80%, 128,000 adult insects can be produced. Excluding 8% male adults used for mating, 117,000 adult insects can be used as medicine. This yields 52 kg of dried insects. It takes only 7 months, and one person can manage ground beetles from 20 kg of seed eggs in their spare time, earning a profit of 19,000 yuan. If raised for 11 months, each kilogram of seed eggs can produce about 20 kg of next-generation seed eggs, making the profit even more considerable.
Although ground beetles are easy to farm and current prices are still fairly stable, so there appears to be a certain farming prospect, the sales channels for ground beetles are relatively hard to develop, and prices have also been continuously declining. Small and medium-sized farmers simply have no way to develop sales channels, and may even end up losing money. So before farming ground beetles, you must carefully consider your own circumstances, and only then decide whether to farm ground beetles.