Shippers of Chinese ginger are awaiting word on whether President Donald Trump will impose tariffs of 10 percent on products from China. "We're already paying 25 percent on ginger and garlic from China and with this increase, that will be 35 percent," says Clara Shih of Best Buy Produce International Inc., adding that pricing on products such as ginger often tends to strengthen already around Chinese New Year. "That's significant."
Once ginger is harvested, it is left to dry for a few weeks and then sent to the shed to be cleaned, washed, and packed. The pink on the ginger shows that it is young and the skin will turn brown when the ginger matures.
However, this price increase is likely to not be felt for a few weeks. "This week is Chinese New Year so there's no production for the next two to three weeks out of China. After that, that's when we will know what the real price will be." She says with this new tariff though, there's also a possibility that pre-tariff pricing from China could also be kept lower to keep demand steady for Chinese ginger.
For U.S. distribution, Best Buy Produce ships ginger from several regions including Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and Costa Rica, along with China. "We mainly do Chinese ginger because it's less fibrous. We sell to mainly cash and carry and wholesale produce markets and chefs like the Chinese ginger better because of that and it's more juicy," says Shih.
Ginger's increasing popularity
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, ginger sales have continued to strengthen in the U.S. given the health halo associated with it. Shih says before the pandemic, it would ship one to two loads a week to New York. Now it's five to six loads weekly to that market. "It's also now more in the mainstream market," she says. "Before COVID, ginger was such a small item."
Sourcing of product can be regional as well given some markets prefer to not have Chinese ginger which is when Best Buy Produce turns to ginger from Peru and other South American countries. "The problem with Peru and Brazil is they don't start until June. Prices are good until December and then January-March there's not a lot of good product from there," says Shih, adding that product from Costa Rica will start becoming available within a week to 10 days.
This new crop ginger was just harvested and shipped out in December 2024 for arrival in 2025. Ginger is an annual crop and China has enough quantity in storage for the whole year.
As for pricing, it softened towards the end of last year and into the start of 2025. "That is when China harvests and they have a good crop. It started coming off in December," says Shih. That said, she adds that there have been numerous problems including delays in the ports on the East Coast that are making consistent availability a challenge. "Sometimes we don't have anything for a couple of weeks and then last week, for example, nine or 10 containers were just released at the same time. It gets difficult. Whenever it comes in it comes in–you can't anticipate it nowadays."
Right now though, pricing on Brazilian or Peruvian ginger is stronger in the low $40s while Chinese ginger is in the high $20s-low $30s.
For more information:
Clara Shih
Best Buy Produce
Tel: +1 (323) 262-8888
www.bestbuyproduce.com