NEW YORK, July 19 (Xinhua) -- While scorching heat grips most of America in early July, Wisconsin's Marathon County offers a striking exception: cool breezes whisper through shaded areas with almost autumnal crispness, while nighttime temperatures regularly dip below 20 degrees Celsius -- a refreshing anomaly in the sweltering national landscape.

"This place is the only place that is producing quality ginseng in the United States," said Dave Schumacher, vice president of the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin, a state-mandated marketing board established in 1991 and overseen by the state of Wisconsin. The ideal climate and the soil here in Wisconsin give ginseng "that real strong bitter flavor, then that little sweetness that comes after that."

"You don't see that in any other region that grows ginseng," Schumacher said, highlighting the area's distinctive qualities.

At its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, over 1,200 ginseng farmers here in Wisconsin were producing over 2 million pounds of ginseng a year. "It really was an economic boom for this area, and also for the state of Wisconsin," recalled Schumacher, his voice tinged with pride for the region's boom years.

The industry has since been in decline. "We went from over 1,200 growers to 79 growers now. And that will decrease another 12 growers in the next two years," Schumacher lamented.

Ginseng production, he said, had declined by 60 percent from its peak to about 1 million pounds. The number could drop even further in the future, unless there is a change in the overall market price.

Ginseng production in Wisconsin has encountered multiple challenges in recent decades. Market pressures mounted as more countries entered the ginseng trade, compounded by climatic threats like Wisconsin's freak May 2010 snowstorm that buried crops under six inches of snow, wiping out tons of mature plants.

Tariffs are the latest challenge facing ginseng farmers in Wisconsin.

"I have tasted the ups and downs in the past 13 years," said Jiang Mingtao, who started to grow ginseng in Marathon County in 2012. "We harvested our first crop in 2015, and back then, the price was three times what it is today."

Jiang said the greatest damage to his ginseng business -- from the first round of the trade war to the current tensions -- has been the uncertainty.

He explained that American ginseng takes three to five years to grow from seed to maturity, and frequent policy shifts have disrupted long-term planning. "We're an industry that hopes for orderly development," he said.

Despite its global reputation, Wisconsin ginseng production accounts for only about 8 percent of the global total. "The trade war is like adding insult to injury," Jiang said.

Asia has long been the traditional market for American ginseng, with about 80 percent of Wisconsin's production ultimately making its way to China, according to Schumacher. "It'll either go directly in large shipments or else it may be carried in as gifts."

"China is very important to us," he added. "We enjoy talking to them (the Chinese people), and overall, they're important to us, and we hope in the future that everything turns out well."

Paul Hsu, chairman and founder of Hsu's Ginseng Enterprises, Inc., has been growing ginseng in Wisconsin for 50 years. Trade tensions triggered layoffs for one-third of Hsu's employees and closure of five out of his 40 farms.

"I have two companies in China, each with 10 branches scattered in nine provinces. Now the ten branches have merged into seven and all of them were shrinking," said the 83-year-old.

Hsu revealed a harsh economic reality: while production costs -- from labor to fertilizers -- have skyrocketed almost sixfold over the past four decades, Wisconsin ginseng prices remain frozen at 1980s levels. "People are less and less interested in planting because it is not profitable," he said.

Facing unprecedented pressures, these growers still cherish their bond with Wisconsin's century-old ginseng tradition -- all three firmly rejecting any thought of giving up ginseng growing.

As a second-generation ginseng farmer, Schumacher said that his nephew is planning on taking over the business after he retires. "So thankfully, I think our family tradition will continue in the ginseng industry."■