Posted on 03/05/2006 11:37:27 AM PST by SJackson
WISCONSIN RAPIDS — There is a huge demand for velvet antler in eastern Asia, but the specter of chronic wasting disease is holding up sales of the product directly to places like South Korea.
That doesn’t mean that the highly sought after Chinese medicinal product isn’t getting there. It means it has to take the long way around, and producers in the United States are losing out, according to Shawn Richards of Global Velvet International.
Mr. Richards spoke to members of the Wisconsin Commercial Deer and Elk Farmers Association last week at their annual convention in Wisconsin Rapids.
Velvet antler — the fuzz-covered new annual growth on bull elk or red deer — is a staple of oriental medicine.
“Antler is taken as a preventative, it is used widely, and it is ingrained in the culture. They have been taking it for 2,000 years,” he said. “They have literally thousands of formulas, and velvet antler is one of the top two ingredients.”
South Korea, with its burgeoning economy and population of 50 million people is the largest importer of velvet antler.
“The product has a strong presence when it can get into the market,” Mr. Richards said, but it has to take a circuitous route to get there. The result is that U.S. Farmers have been getting as low as $7 a pound for the past three years since CWD became a major issue in the country.
In contrast, New Zealand deer and elk producers get the equivalent of $25 (U.S.) a pound.
“Their product is not banned from South Korea. Korean buyers can buy their product, have it shipped in, and they’re good to go,” Mr. Richards said.
Velvet antler has historically ranged from $35 to $60 a pound with notable highs of $120. At $7, U.S. Producers are “hemorrhaging money,” Mr. Richards said.
“The disappointing thing for us is that this is a viable industry. It was growing by leaps and bounds. Everything was moving in a good direction, then we get a disease issue that crops up that had an overwhelming impact on this industry. It’s catastrophic, really,” he said.
Velvet antler is not the only saleable product from elk and deer, but according to Mr. Richards, it is the base for the industry.
Jerry Potts, an elk grower from Green Bay, said he got $54 a pound 15 years ago when he started in the business. He said that CWD took the feet out from under the industry.
“Even at $15, it’s just enough to pay the feed bill,” he said.
He said he’s had to make his money selling breeding stock to other farmers and selling trophy bulls to hunting preserves.
Diana Susen and her husband, Bob, have two elk farms near Washington County. They have been selling velvet antler into the domestic market rather than worrying about export.
Ms. Susen said that adding value to her own product and selling it directly to customers as a finished product means she doesn’t have to worry about the low velvet antler prices, but she said the industry overall can’t survive at $7.
“It would have to be $40 to $50 a pound to be more appropriate, to make it lucrative for farmers,” she said. “We’re at a point in the industry that something has to break. The Korean market has to open, or something, to make the industry survive and grow.”
What will start a turn-around?
“Our government just has to do what they’ve been promising to do for years,” Mr. Richards said. “It’s not that hard. They just have to follow through on it.”
He was referring to federal uniform methods and rules that would override state rules and reassure importers that the federal government is serious about controlling CWD.
In a global economy, countries want to know that the federal government — rather than individual states — is in control, Mr. Richards said.
He said that banned shipments of beef because of bovine spongiform encephalopathy had added to the problem.
“If they open up to U.S. Beef, they just have to open up to elk too. You can’t let one in and not the other,” he said.
“If I had a crystal ball, I’d know what to do next, Mr. Richards said. “I’m the eternal optimist. I’ve been in this industry since 1980, and I’ve seen it go up and down. Right now, we’re in kind of a down cycle, and I know she’s going to turn. The question is, is she going to turn in the next year or the next two years? That, I don’t know. But it will turn.”
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"...and selling trophy bulls to hunting preserves."
That just makes me sad. I'd rather find my "Trophy Buck" on my own through my own wits and cunning rather than have it "planted" for me.
As for the velvet, I know nothing about it. What does it "prevent" when taken for medicinal purposes?
Probably doesn't do a damn thing, like all "Chinese Traditional Medicine". It's all about "energy" and "balance" and "harmony" -- basically voodoo. You've read about "feng shui", all that mumbo jumbo about how putting a chair here instead of there keeps the good luck in the house? That's how they think about diseases.
Takes care of just about everything known to ail man. I'm wondering is you can order it by the dumptruck load. ;)
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=922643&sourceid=22809870874013431355
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