For medicinal herb cultivation in Chengnan Town, Zhejiang, the market is ultimately what matters

At the cultivation base of Peng Fugui, a medicinal herb grower in Chengnan Town, more than a dozen workers were "buried" in the bushes, cutting down raspberry branches one by one and picking the raspberries growing on them. These raspberries are different from the ones we usually eat. Apart from a few that were slightly red, they were basically all green. "Raspberries turning red means they are ripe and can be eaten as fruit. But mine are for use as medicinal herbs, so I need the green, unripe ones," Peng Fugui said.

Cultivated raspberries can sell for 90 yuan per jin

Peng Fugui began growing medicinal herbs five or six years ago. "What I grew before was Atractylodes macrocephala, but this variety is fairly common and the returns were not very good, so I started growing raspberries and iris the year before last," Peng Fugui said. This year is the first harvest of raspberries and also the year with the best price in recent years. "After picking began in early May, they could sell for about 90 yuan per jin. On the market, the price of dried raspberry fruit was 58 yuan to 70 yuan per jin the year before last, and 65 yuan to 75 yuan last year."

Because fresh raspberries are difficult to preserve, Peng Fugui specially bought a dryer to sun-dry or machine-dry the raspberries. "At the beginning of picking, the raspberries were still fairly tender, and it took about 3.5 jin to 4 jin to dry into 1 jin of dried fruit. Now 3 jin can be dried into 1 jin of dried fruit," Peng Fugui said. He estimated that this year one mu of land could harvest 100 jin of dried raspberry fruit. "The main reason is that the flowering period encountered prolonged rain, which affected the yield. I estimate that next year one mu of land can harvest 200 jin to 300 jin of dried fruit."

Peng Fugui is not worried about the sales of raspberries. "Not many people grow raspberries now, and besides, the amount of wild raspberries is small and their quality is not good. The price of cultivated ones keeps being pushed higher, and sales are very good. Medicinal herb companies will come to purchase them on their own initiative."

In addition to raspberries, in August this year Peng Fugui's iris will also usher in a bumper harvest. "The market price of iris this year is also not low. It can sell for 14.5 yuan to 15 yuan per jin. The year before last it was only 7.5 yuan per jin."

More than 600 mu of medicinal herbs are grown in Chengnan, and growing more can also qualify for subsidies

Peng Fugui is not the only one growing medicinal herbs. In the past two years, many growers in Chengnan have begun to enter the medicinal herb market. "Up to now, Chengnan Town has planted more than 600 mu of medicinal herbs, mainly raspberry, lily, Tetrastigma hemsleyanum, and so on. Peng Fugui alone has planted 60 mu of raspberries and 60 mu of iris," said a relevant person in charge of Chengnan Town.

In order to encourage local people to grow medicinal herbs and flowers on a larger scale, Chengnan Town also issued relevant subsidy policies last year, giving subsidies ranging from 600 yuan to 1,000 yuan per mu for 3 consecutive years. For example, for ornamental medicinal herbs grown in contiguous plots of 20 mu or more with a land lease term of 3 years or more, the first year gives a subsidy of 1,000 yuan per mu, the second year gives a subsidy of 600 yuan per mu, and the third year gives a subsidy of 300 yuan per mu. The same applies to economic medicinal herbs grown in contiguous plots: the first year gives a subsidy of 600 yuan per mu, the second year 400 yuan per mu, and the third year 200 yuan per mu.

The products Peng Fugui planted this time involve both subsidies for ornamental medicinal herbs and economic medicinal herbs. "I was the first to apply, and I have already received more than 80,000 yuan in subsidies for the first year," Peng Fugui said.

Growing medicinal herbs should not be too blind. Dendrobium officinale is a counterexample

According to preliminary statistics from the municipal Agriculture and Forestry Bureau, the medicinal herb planting area in Wenling has already reached over 1,000 mu, of which the largest is Dendrobium officinale.

"The medicinal herbs in our city are mainly Dendrobium officinale, mainly distributed in Daxi, Wenqiao, Chengnan, Ruoheng and other places. According to incomplete statistics, the city's Dendrobium officinale area has already reached more than 800 mu, and it is mainly grown under protected cultivation. In addition to Dendrobium officinale, in the past two years saffron, Tetrastigma hemsleyanum, raspberry, foxglove and others have also been planted by people from time to time," said a relevant staff member of the municipal Agriculture and Forestry Bureau. However, because many growers have not done enough market research, they have encountered difficulties in sales and prices. Take Dendrobium officinale for example. Its price has fallen quite a lot in recent years. Dendrobium officinale that used to cost over 1,000 yuan per kilogram can now be bought for less than 100 yuan.

Some growers said that in 2013, one jin of Dendrobium officinale could still sell for five or six hundred yuan, but by 2014 it had fallen to two or three hundred yuan, and in the past two years even one or two hundred yuan has been hard to sell.

"Before growing medicinal herbs, you still need to learn more about the market environment and not be blind. For example, growing raspberries in Chengnan is actually a good choice. On the one hand, raspberries are not difficult to grow; on the other hand, there is market demand, and because wild raspberries cannot grow in contiguous stands, this provides an opportunity for the development of cultivated raspberries," the staff member said.

He also reminded that when growing medicinal herbs, it is best to choose understory cultivation. "Many medicinal herbs are suitable for growing under the forest. Their quality will be better, and the forest land can be used rationally. Not only is the rent cheaper, but there is also no need to build too much infrastructure, which can save a lot of costs. However, although understory cultivation gives better quality, because it imitates wild growing conditions, the yield may be affected."