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People have been "dabbling" in ginseng in New Zealand since at least the 1970s, says Graeme Parmenter, who heads Crop & Food Research's ginseng programme.
However, an attempt to go big commercially with ginseng ran into trouble in recent years, with the operation still dogged by legal issues and friction between shareholders.
Ginseng NZ - growing under artificial shade on more than 160 hectares in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato - went into receivership in 2005 after a special partnership involving some of its crop was canned.
The special partnership was pulled following differences of opinion between major shareholders Brian Sage and Money Managers founder Doug Somers-Edgar, which led to Sage's exit from the business.
An attempt last year by Somers-Edgar to sell Ginseng NZ by tender also failed.
But he said the operation hoped to make a profit of several million dollars in 2007 and was offering plants to professional investors, for harvest in 2008, in an attempt to raise working capital.
The profit expected in 2007 is earmarked to help pay back the many millions he has put into developing the venture, Somers-Edgar said.
He said it was planned that Ginseng NZ's crops and leases would be taken over by a new entity owned by him, and that this entity would carry on the business. "You've got to have a clean start."
Sage's lawyer David Garrett said just before Christmas that the High Court was in the new year due to hear an application for an injunction preventing the receiver selling any of the business, pending a hearing on a multimillion-dollar claim by Sage. Garrett was also seeking answers from the receiver to a range of questions relating to the dispute.
The failed special partnership's investment statement raised eyebrows when it suggested dried ginseng root could fetch $350/kg.
But Somers-Edgar said the crop harvested in April and May 2006, which had mostly been sold, had been fetching $500/kg. Buyers had been local manufacturers and re-sellers, with crop being used in beverages, pharmaceuticals, neutraceuticals and tourist products.
Meanwhile, Crop & Food's Parmenter said his organisation was helping R&D work on growing ginseng under artificial shade and forest canopy.
It is supporting two new ginseng-growing trials under pine forest on Maori land owned by Ngati Whakaue near Rotorua and Maraeroa C near Te Kuiti.
The Maori organisations are collaborating with Korean Jae Lee, who has already been working on another trial operation for the past few years on leased land within the Turangi prison farm forest.
"We're trying to assist Jae Lee to demonstrate to potential investors in his business that he has a system that will work under forest," said Parmenter.
Growing ginseng in pine forests - ideal with their straight rows of trees - meant there was potential for mechanical planting and harvesting. "It's one of our competitive advantages," said Parmenter.
Lee said he was a recent graduate from a special ginseng growing course in Korea and had put his and relatives' money into the New Zealand experiments.
He said forests here, unlike those in Korea, provided good conditions.
"Here the forest is very good for environment of ginseng growing," he said.
None of the ginseng Lee has grown here has been sold so far - he said his focus was trying to prove growing in New Zealand could work.
Maraeroa C chief executive Glen Katu said his organisation had five trial ginseng plots on a block of suitable forest land at Pureroa, between Te Kuiti and Mangakino.
He said Maraeroa C should know within about six months whether ginseng would grow well there.
The organisation, which has contributed $5000 towards the trial, would then have to make a decision about planting ginseng more widely, Katu said.
