There was the seventh or eighth Cordyceps auction this year
yesterday 21st July at Dodena at the foothill of the two famous
monasteries of Tango and Cherry in Thimphu.

My friend Parop Dorji, Chief Horticulture Officer, when he saw me
said, "What is this person from Election Commission doing here at
the Cordyceps auction?"

Having been involved in Cordyceps research earlier, I have always
wanted to witness one Cordyceps auction undertaken since 2004 when
Cordyceps collection was legalized in the country.

The Cordyceps auction drew quite a crowd. There were over 30-40
buyers and over 100 to 200 sellers.

The highest bid price for a kilogram was Nu. 4,11,000 (US $ 10,275)
and the lowest Nu. 2,45,000 ($ 6125). On top of the bid price, the
buyer also paid Nu. 7000 ($175) as royalty to the Government which
then the highest price worked out to Nu. 4,18,000 ($ 10,450).

While the Cordyceps collectors appeared excited at such a good price
for the product, many buyers said that the price was crazy, yet they
lapped up all the supply there.

I found difficult to make sense of the dynamics of the Cordyceps
auction yesterday. However, I must wait for Dophu, the marketing
researcher at the RNR-RC Yusipang who was also conductor of the
auction yesterday, who said that he is doing a value chain study for
Cordyceps.

Some of the important findings from talking to different actors
yesterday were:

• The Park people are genuinely concerned about the sustainable
harvest of Cordyceps and the environmental consequences such as
disturbance to wild animals and littering of cigarette stubs as a
result of large scale picking of Cordyceps.
• The permit for collection is issued one for each household so that
there is equity amongst households with many members and few members.
• Many local people are now seeking new thram (house) number.
• Many local people are buying yaks, and the increased number of
yaks is creating pressure on the carrying capacity of the park.
• There is a need for more research on ecology, sociology and policy.
• Some exporters say that buying and selling of Cordyceps should be
left upto the people. The auction leads to escalation of price to
crazy level which makes exporting of it difficult.
• The collectors on the other hand are thankful to the Government
for organizing auctions as the price obtained is generally more
handsome than the price got across the international border in
Tibet.
• Some collectors say that as the price in the auction is higher,
there must be Cordyceps supply flowing in from across the border.
• Since Cordyceps is very valuable, there is stealing of Cordyceps
in the villages, and within the same household.
• People are thankful to the Government for deploying security
personnel during the Cordyceps season, and this has greatly stopped
the poachers from across the border.

I hope this post is informative. I shall also post some pictures
from yesterday's auction – thanks to the digital camera technology.

Warmest regards

Phuntsho Namgyel