Botanical World News
Fall 2008 Market Report
Althea Root (Marshmallow)
Due to the very hot summer in Eastern Europe this year, Althea will be in short supply through new crop 2009. Demand in the U.S. market has already increased and we will certainly see some shortages in early 2009. Prices from origin have started much higher this year and we expect pricing to increase. We have seen a little price drop due to the strengthening dollar against the European currencies which has been beneficial for U.S. buyers. The local prices have remained high.
Bee Pollen
The Chinese have reported that they are having trouble collecting enough Bee Pollen. One of the main reasons for the shortages has been the pollution, which has destroyed many bee colonies around the areas where pollen is collected. The Chinese Authorities are trying to reduce the pollution levels, as we saw during the Olympics. Good quality pollen has been harder to find this year and we have seen a 60% increase in the pricing.
Buckthorne Bark
The collection of Buckthorne Bark in 2008 was very limited. The hot weather and a shortage of people to collect the bark have caused the market to move up in price. We expect to see limited offers from Eastern Europe through the end of 2008. The first half of 2009 will be very difficult to find product. We strongly recommend covering your requirements for the first half of 2009 as soon as possible. The quality of the material is not as good as we have seen in previous years.
Cayenne
The new crop in India looks very promising this year. The Monsoon rains were good throughout the growing region. The 2008 crop had been a little lower than we had originally expected, but we are all hearing good news about the new crop. We may even see some prices fall towards the end of 2008. The Chinese Tientsin crop is again small but the quality has been very good. The crop this year is also likely to be small but most buyers have now moved to the Indian S-4 Chilies.
Dandelion Root
Europe has not been a factor in producing Dandelion Root for the last 5 years as China has become the major supplier to the U.S. market. This year China has not been able to keep up with the world demand for Dandelion root and we have been seeing prices steadily increase from the beginning of 2008. As Europe has only limited supplies we expect prices to remain firm through mid 2009. The Chinese equivalent to the FDA (CIQ) has also been delaying shipments from China as they begin to enforce stricter export standards on their raw materials.
Echinacea Purpurea Herb
We are seeing stronger demand for Echinacea Purpurea herb this year as we get closer to the winter months. Farmers around the world limited the amount of plantings over the last 2 to 3 years due to a major over supply of raw material and soft herb sales in 2006 and 2007. Farmers have mainly planted Echinacea Purpurea for contracted quantities and have allowed stocks of older crop material to be sold out. We are likely to see prices begin to move us as the raw material supply becomes more in line with demand.
Fennel Seed
India is reporting a good crop this year and we have seen prices falling in the local Indian market of Urdu where most of the crop is traded. Quality is looking much better as more Indian companies are using color sorters for their cleaning of the Fennel seed. The Egyptian market is now double the price of the Indian Fennel. Egypt has had major agricultural problems this last year and most items from the country have moved up sharply. If you can use the Indian material then you will see savings over the 2007/2008 crop.
Psyllium Husk
India again had a short crop in 2008 and demand has been above availability of the raw material in the market. As soon as the Psyllium seed is delivered to the market place it is bought up by the Husk producers. There was no carryover of material from the 2007 crop. So the industry was unable to rely on older crop material as it has done in previous years. We will not see any relief until March 2009 prices are likely to increase through new crop. If we see the heavy rains in early 2009 that we saw in 2007 and 2008 we could see prices move even higher. Make sure you have coverage at least until the end of the first quarter of 2009.
Valerian Root
Stocks in the U.S are very low and new crop Valerian from Eastern Europe will not begin to arrive until November. Prices of new crop Valerian are already higher than last years at this time. European buyers have been very active in Poland to secure their early supplies. The crop is reported to be 10-20% below the 2007 crop which was totally sold out. We encourage buyers to take coverage for the whole of 2009 as soon as possible as prices are very unlikely to come down very far.