Echinacea Market in 2001 and Vision
Answered by: Richard Alan Miller
Question from: Mary
Posted on: March 4, 2001

I would like to know if you,in your capacity as a herbal consultant, provide a letter or testimonial stating your opinion regarding a particular sample you tested. If you do, what is your consulting fee to provide such a letter? If you provide this service, I would be interested in obtaining such a letter as I think it would help my marketing efforts.

Also, some small amounts of Echinacea 150 Lbs. are rumored to be trading up here for over 40.00 CDN or 26.00 U.S. but these are for echanacoside levels of 1.5%. Don’t know how true it is.

US$26.00/lb. for 150 lbs. might be true (or not). I just sold 400 lbs. at US$14.00, to include my commission. I have almost 8,000 lbs. at that same price. This is current farm-gate, which I’m supposed to be the "expert."

"An "expert" is a damn fool, a long way from home." My "plan" is to sell the cargo-box request at this price, so that when new inventories arrive, we can justifiably raise the price for summer harvests. All my material has C/As 0.02 levels echinacosides. Best root chemistries come from MT and ND (some WY) with lime. (www.herbfarminfo.com)

My "testimonial" is what I represent for sale first, as a broker. I will not represent many crops available, to include ginsengs from BC. Ethics and "right livelihood" are as important in the sale as price and chemistry. Spirituality is not "what you do," but "how you do it." I know most of my farmers for more than 12 years... a way of "being."

I liked your product, from my own "laboratory" check. And, I would be honored to represent it. I may not be able to sell it right now because I have large inventories with similar quality (above price). The marketing article contained perspectives on selling something "at what the market will bear," and why this is not often the farmer’s best choice. (Saskatoon presentation).

Sometimes these things are convoluted, yielding results two years later... (like now). Our current "predicament" was completely "orchestrated" by German buyers. We need to federate, and speak with a common goal toward stabilizing our markets and industry. I see the vision on how it could work, but we need to organize.

That’s what I have tried to do over the last 30 years. Provide footprints on the ethics of this lifestyle. I will be speaking more on this at both Winnipeg (March 2001) and Toronto (October 2001).

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