Company Dynamic

Guest again on "Meet the Big Shot" to unveil the mystery of Cordyceps Sinensis.

Date:2020-06-12     Browse:1051

    On May 24, the President of Chendu Skyherb Biotechnology Co., Mr. Huang Sihao, and CEO Mr. Liu Yanhong were invited to be a guest again on the show "Meet the Big Shot" on ETTV to continue to unveil the mystery of cordyceps to the audience.


    Host: Cordyceps is also known as the "Golden plant", and I heard that it has suffered from price suppression, but the price has not fallen yet. What can you tell us about that?


    President Huang Sihao: The reason why it is called the "golden plant" is that, on the one hand, it has the same level of medicinal value as antler, ginseng, and other precious herbs, which is like the "gold" of Chinese medicine. On the other hand, it is costly, and I believe everyone has heard about that.


    Due to the massive exploitation of cordyceps, the quantity is scarce while the demand exceeds the supply, which eventually led to the rising and even doubling price of caterpillar fungus. As the saying goes, a tall tree catches the wind people, and Cordyceps are no exception. While the cost of Cordyceps was surging, it was subjected to price suppression three times, and the market tried to lower its price by means.


    Do you remember the time when luxury goods were being suppressed? Judging on the outcomes, except for Maotai, only the price of cordyceps was left unsuppressed. There were also some subsequent incidents, such as cordyceps being removed from health products or rumors of heavy metal contamination of cordyceps. These arguments or practices were proven to be untenable and slowly faded away as the price of cordyceps has been rising for 15 years in a row. Cordyceps can not be called a "luxury"; its medicinal value is widely recognized, and the market justifiably determines its price.


    Host: How difficult is it to mass-produce Cordyceps? CEO Liu Yanhong first introduced the audience to the "life of a worm". There is a worm, and there is a fungus, and then worm and fungus become one. Go with the flow, he explained that the difficulty increases at every stage.


    Firstly, they have to deal with the survival of larvae of the ghost moths, and once the number of larvae grows, they would have to overcome the difficulties such as insect infestation. There are questions like whether the worms are successfully infected by the fungus, whether there is fruiting after infection, and how to ensure the quality of cordyceps after the fruiting. From the cultivation environment, feed to the patented technology, each step brings new puzzles. 


    The cumulative difficulty of each step makes the whole process harder than expected, but thankfully, we have overcome all these difficulties.


    Host: It is rumored that wild cordyceps will be more nutritious than artificial ones?
    Mr. Liu: The Ginseng as an example. Ginseng has also once suffered from overexploitation, and the demand was exceeding supply.


    There is a brand called "Zhengguanzhuang". This long-established Korean ginseng brand adopts strict planting procedures. It has a series of technical support from selecting the soil, planting, cultivation technology guidance, and acquisition management so that the quality of the product is reliably guaranteed at every step.


    Zhengguanzhuang has commercialized ginseng and earned trust from the consumer after decades of selling, so consumers no longer pursue wild ginseng blindly because the nutritional value of Zhengguanzhuang ginseng is not worse than wild ones. Isn't Cordyceps also going through such a stage?


    Chendu Skyherb Biotechnology Co. follows the rules of nature and cultivates the seedlings in the wild to achieve "semi-natural" growth, which may preserve the "wildness" of Cordyceps to the greatest extent. We hope that one day we can become an influential brand like Zhengguanzhuang.


    Host: What is the biggest challenge in research and development, and what are your following plans?


    Mr. Huang: The main challenge would be the uncertainty of the R&D. After all, cordyceps comes out once a year, and if it fails this year, we can only start again next year. From the uncertainty of R&D funding and the R&D cycle to the issues in achieving scale and mass production and commercialization, they are all enormous challenges. The outcome so far is the biggest affirmation of the efforts we have put in.


    Mr. Liu: Cordyceps is the result of the joint effort of several generations, and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts. We have been exploring Tibet for six years; the question is not about whether we will succeed or not but whether we can achieve mass production. At present, the fruiting rate has reached 10% and is certified by the Tibetan Science Department; the wild cordyceps cannot reach such a high fruiting rate. From an industrial point of view, a 10% fruiting is very low. But in terms of production, 10% fruiting corresponds to a 100% increase in production, which can bring considerable economic benefits.


    Mr. Huang: The company has already started planning to get listed. From the beginning, we have prepared well according to the listing standard. We have hired a professional accounting firm and law firm that assisted many listed companies with financial and legal affairs and planned the following path according to the listing standard. At present, we have received a letter from the law firm informing us that we comply with the listing standards. We expect to be listed in Q4 next year or Q1 the year after.