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Cordyceps, a peculiar health weed native to Bhutan which is highly valued for its medicinal properties, fetches astronomical prices at the yearly auction. This year a man from Thimphu district got the highest price for his cordyceps - Rs.351,000 for a kg!
Cordyceps is a weed that is formed when a particular species of caterpillar entwines itself on a high altitude grass, and the two dry up. The weed is also known to have aphrodisiacal properties.
In Thimphu, capital city of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, a single stick of medium grade cordyceps sells for Ngultrum 50, roughly equivalent to one US dollar. But, the entire lot is sold out in auctions and hardly a few grams are available in the Thimphu markets.
The agriculture ministry holds auctions every year around this season in various districts, and the Thimphu auction saw the collector from the Naro Block of Thimphu district go laughing back to his village.
Cordyceps are grown at altitudes beyond 2,500 metres and the collectors are nomadic people whose only livelihood comes from this once-a-year auction. No other cash crop can be grown at those altitudes, agriculture ministry officials said.
These nomadic people live a very hard life, as survival conditions are difficult. To detect a live cordyceps stick, they have to crawl. The collectors have to stay away from their homes for days, surviving on dried food, especially dried beef or pork.
Sometimes an individual collector may not even find one full kilogram of the weed. Often the collectors die, as six of them did when a mudslide completely washed them away when incessant and heavy rains lashed the country on May 26 in the wake of Cyclone Alia. Their bodies have still not been found.
The ministry is still holding auctions in various districts, but it seems unlikely that the price will bettered.
Ministry officials are worried over a new trend they noticed this year - all the certified and listed bidders are not coming to the auction, for reasons they are yet to fathom.
