Finding Buyers and Price List for Medicinal Roots in Arkansas
Answered by: Richard Alan Miller
Question from: Darwin Risinger
Posted on: December 10, 2006

I am located in northern Arkansas and collect ginseng, goldenseal, and other roots in my spare time and need to find a buyer.

Wildcrafting on a part time basis to supplement rural incomes means you are most likely producing less than 100 lbs. for a given sales. Is that correct? If so, one of your local regional buyers would be Wells of Sharps Pawn in Bartlesville, OK. He buys all of your crops, to include others not listed. My last number of his was 918-336-8300.

Of course, the amount of money you get for your efforts is much less (35%) than if you sold in 2,000-lb. or greater quantities. You can do this by pooling resources, like a cooperative. This immediately broadens the number of middlemen and smaller manufacturers. Both Texas and Oklahoma have a long history for these and related wildcrafted herbs.

Lists of who is buying what changes every day, so many now use the Internet for a paper-trail and correspondence. My book "Native Plants Of Commercial Importance" offers 10 specific crops from your region of the country (5 Regions, 50 crops), and is available from my website, Acres, USA, or Richters of Canada.

My book "The Potential of Herbs As A Cash Crop" contains several pages of different-sized buyers in neighboring States and other Countries. That book is also available from the same sources. You may also find a few articles and resources at:

http://www.nwbotanicals.org/oak/altagri/a_a_index.html

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