On Nov. 10, North Korea’s Agricultural Commission sent a team of investigators to conduct a two-week inspection of ginseng farms around the city of Kaesong.
“[Investigators from] the Agricultural Commission are looking around the ginseng farms in Kaesong and inspecting various things there, including their books, to help the commission assess the state of ginseng production this year and resolve several pending technical issues,” a source in Kaesong told Daily NK on Nov. 18.
“This inspection is actually designed to help the state understand the state of ginseng production, and was apparently not prompted by a complaint,” the source said.
As the first such inspection in eight years, the Agricultural Commission has reportedly put trustworthy officials on the team and told them to thoroughly assess the state of production and take necessary measures.
“The Agricultural Commission has identified the basic matters that need to be investigated and evaluated in regard to the state of ginseng production. The primary goal is to confirm whether ginseng production matches the area that’s under cultivation,” the source explained.
“The investigators will check whether there are any signs of ginseng farms being illegally expanded by the city of Kaesong, the surrounding counties, or private individuals and will ascertain whether officials have properly reported any such activities,” the source added.
According to the source, the investigators have already measured the area under cultivation at the ginseng farms, which have expanded over each of the past eight years. They are now working to precisely measure the target harvest for that area to determine if farmers have deceived the government about how much they are producing.
During this process, the source said, investigators have been focused more on the government’s point of view than the varying circumstances at the farms, which has irritated farm managers.
“Farmers are frustrated by the investigators’ unrealistic view of the situation. The investigators insist on the state’s planned output for the area under cultivation while ignoring the fact that various farm equipment and materials needed for producing ginseng and managing the farm must be bought at high market prices, rather than nominal government prices,” the source said.
“The managers at the ginseng farms in Kaesong hope the government intends to use this assessment to better understand their ongoing difficulties and resolve pending issues rather than focusing solely on performance and on the target output for the area,” he added.
The team of investigators from the Agricultural Commission are also looking into whether private individuals have engaged in illegal ginseng cultivation. But since ginseng is only being raised on the designated land in Kaesong, the investigators are unlikely to find any such illegal activities, the source said.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
