Tricks to inflate the price of giant Ngoc Linh ginseng worth billions

In recent years, every few months, a giant “Ngoc Linh ginseng” root has been discovered on Ngoc Linh mountain. It is worth noting that it was discovered in Tra Linh commune and was all through the hands of a local girl, a ginseng trader through “social networks”!

In the days before Tet, when the price of Ngoc Linh ginseng skyrocketed, hundreds of millions for a kilogram of cultivated ginseng, the social network community was in an uproar over a ginseng root weighing 8 ounces, "priced" at 600-700 million VND. The owner also announced that he would send a truck to deliver the ginseng root to the buyer's house, as a precious gift for Tet.

From the internet, information spread that this ginseng is a treasure of Ngoc Linh forest, accidentally discovered by hunters in the forest.

Accordingly, Mr. Ho Van Gioi and 2 other people in Tra Linh commune (Nam Tra My, Quang Nam), found it in the primeval forest, where they had to walk for 4 hours. They accidentally found it while trapping animals.

This ginseng grows at the base of a fern tree. The fern roots cover the entire ginseng root, so it took the group of people 3 hours to dig it up. Weighing the whole plant and roots, it weighed 8 ounces.

The above information, along with the image of Xe Dang people carrying ginseng plants covered in black soil, then washing them and placing them on the scale, is very convincing and attractive.

However, those who have some knowledge about ginseng in general and Ngoc Linh ginseng in particular, immediately realize that this is an organized fabrication, aimed at exaggerating the value of the ginseng root.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tuyen, a Ngoc Linh ginseng expert, who is also one of the few people who owns a huge amount of ginseng, it is a cultivated ginseng root, not a natural ginseng.

A ginseng grower in Ngoc Linh mountain said that the ginseng root was not originally from Ngoc Linh mountain. The ginseng roots were 20-30 years old, weighed 2-3 taels, and were very few in number, and they all knew very well the origin. It was impossible for such a huge ginseng root to grow in Ngoc Linh mountain without anyone knowing. Ginseng grown in Ngoc Linh mountain is not even true, let alone making up stories about wild ginseng.

According to some sources, through observing the shape, size, many branches, and thick trunk, it is likely that this ginseng root originated from the North, even industrially grown in China, was brought to Ngoc Linh to be planted for a while, then a group of traders built an image for it, turning it into genuine Ngoc Linh ginseng, to increase its value.

It is worth mentioning that in mid-2017, a group of ginseng traders in Tra Linh commune also caused a stir in the online community and the press when they sold a 7-ounce ginseng root for half a billion VND.

That ginseng root also has the following biography: owned by Mr. Ho Van Thuat (village 3, Tra Linh commune, Nam Tra My, Quang Nam), weighs about 7 ounces, and is about 30 years old.

Responding to some newspapers, Mr. Thuat said that the ginseng tree was brought back from the forest by his father, planted in the garden, and was estimated to be over 30 years old. Mr. Thuat had taken care of the ginseng tree for many years, and when he saw that the price of ginseng had increased very high, people asked to buy it, so he sold it.

A tycoon who owns a ginseng garden of dozens of hectares on the Ngoc Linh mountain range in Kon Tum, who is close to Mr. Thuat, said: "I don't know where Mr. Thuat got that ginseng, or if it fell from the sky, but suddenly there is a magnificent history left by his father."

There should have been a complete picture, but this ginseng root had no stem or leaves. The trading group explained that the stem was broken by hail. However, when a tycoon spent half a billion to buy it, the online community exposed that the ginseng root originated from Lai Chau, and was posted online by a person in Lai Chau a few days before it appeared in Ngoc Linh. So, clearly, the 7-tael ginseng root priced at half a billion was a scam, when it was labeled as growing on Ngoc Linh mountain. The scam to inflate the price of this ginseng root is exactly the same as the recent ginseng root, and is also from the same ginseng trading group.

Looking back to 2016, we can see that social networks, then the press, also helped inflate the price, allowing this group of people to sell ginseng for 250 million VND, the most shocking ginseng ever, when for the first time there was a ginseng with such a terrible price.

Interestingly, after the online trading group in Tra Linh sold it for 250 million, it went through many more hands and was worth billions of dong.

However, ginseng players in Ngoc Linh all affirm that the precious ginseng root, used as an image everywhere, is actually ginseng from Laos or the North. For many years, all over Ngoc Linh peak, no natural ginseng roots of large weight have been found. Occasionally, people find natural ginseng roots as small as chopsticks, weighing a few flowers. Large ginseng roots have been extinct for a long time, however, large quantities of Ngoc Linh ginseng, weighing from a few ounces to a kilogram, are still being sold on the market, priced at hundreds of millions of dong.

According to physician Pham Van Thanh (Lao Cai), who is famous for his stomach medicine and has a deep understanding of Northern ginseng, for a long time, ginseng traders have been taking ginseng from Laos, Northern ginseng, even China, bringing it to Ngoc Linh, and selling fake Ngoc Linh ginseng at exorbitant prices. With large ginseng roots, they attach a biography, story and inflate the price to deceive consumers, seriously damaging the reputation of Ngoc Linh ginseng.

According to physician Thanh: “Those large ginseng roots are all bamboo ginseng. Bamboo ginseng has many types, different in color of the core, flavor, and a little bit of the shape of the stem and leaves. Otherwise, they are similar in shape, each year they grow 1-2, even 3 segments, with one or many branches. It grows in the North and is called wild ginseng, while it grows in Ngoc Linh mountain and is called Ngoc Linh ginseng. Many types of bamboo ginseng in Lai Chau have the same quality, even higher than Ngoc Linh ginseng, but the value is not equal. The value of Ngoc Linh ginseng is currently being pushed too high, beyond its real value.”

It is known that currently, Ngoc Linh ginseng grown in the garden is priced from 90 to 120 million VND per kilogram, for the 50gr and 100gr tubers. Because of such high prices, traders are willing to find every way to bring ginseng from other places, poor quality, into Ngoc Linh mountain to deceive customers. They are willing to invest money to create stories, causing a stir on social networks, then sell at exorbitant prices to consumers.