Dive Brief:

• The price of ginger has skyrocketed, according to importers. Shipments from multiple locations to both Pacific and Atlantic coasts are affected.
• The cost of a 30-pound carton of ginger from China is now $32 to $36. That's more than double the price a year ago. 
• Ginger from Hawaii and Brazil, the other two major sources for the U.S. market, are also in flux. Ginger from those areas is seen as "premium" and tend to demand a higher price than Chinese ginger. Brazilian ginger is now selling at around $40 to $44 a carton. The Hawain crop will come to market soon, and prices are expected to match Brazilian prices.

Dive Insight:

We don't presume to know what's driving the cost hikes for Chinese ginger. The most logical explanation, presumably, would be that demand for the root has grown. Certainly that's our experience. Everyone we know cooks with fresh ginger now. And everywhere we look nowadays we see foods and beverages made with ginger. A few decades ago the only ginger products you could buy at the average U.S. grocer were ginger ale and ginger cookies. 

But there is one part of this story that we find troubling -- a claim that ginger production is down 30 percent in China. This is another instance in which the lack of transparency into China's economy is frightening. A drop of nearly one-third of a major export crop (and a commodity that is as tied to the national consciousness as corn is to America's) should be major news. Certainly markets were expecting a decline in production. But a drop of this level is shocking.