Loose ginger in the fresh produce section of UK supermarkets always seem to come from China. Disappointingly for me, the labels on the packaging give no information as to the variety. It is quite likely that what I am seeing could well be either Weifang ginger or Laiwu ginger. Both of these varieties, which are highly regarded and sought after, come from central Shandong Province. Weifang ginger is the thicker of the two but I couldn't identify either of them on the basis of just seeing one.
I've often been puzzled as to why ginger ale and non-alcoholic ginger beer are taxed. Here in the UK they are both subject to value-added tax (VAT) which is a form of sales tax. I'm also annoyed that alcoholic ginger beer is taxed but that is another story. But it appears that these beverages have been taxed for many years. During the First World War the US government enacted the War Revenue Act as a way of raising extra money and encouraging thrift. This imposed a tax on soft drinks which unfortunately included ginger ale. In typical tax raising fashion, the Act was not repealed or superceded once the war had ended. Ginger ale has been taxed at State level in many parts of the USA ever since for many different reasons. In 1927, California suggested a tax to support education. Some states levy a tax as a way of tackling the obesity problem. And last year, Pittsburgh proposed a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (including ginger ale) to fund the pension scheme for the city's employees. It does seem rather unfair to group the healthy properties of some ginger ales with, say, fat-laden doughnuts.
Incidentally, I've been looking at the UK's VAT regulations to see how they affect various ginger products. Gingerbread slabs are zero-rated but a gingerbread man decorated with chocolate is taxed at the standard rate 'unless the chocolate content amounts to no more than a couple of dots for the eyes'. You couldn't make it up.
The New Sabah Times reported that ginger farmers in the state of Sabah in Malaysia have been offered a guaranteed market for part of their crop. Participating farmers in the valley district of Tambunan have signed a sale and purchase agreement with the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (FAMA) for up to 30 tonnes of this season's harvest. FAMA will also be responsible for providing training in crop management and marketing. FAMA is a marketing agency established by the Malaysian government and operated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) ran a feature on Kaiming Qiu, a Chinese businessman, who arrived in Fiji fifteen years ago as an architectural engineer on a construction project. Once the project had finished, Qiu decided to stay on in Fiji and moved into farming. He has now just opened a FJ$0.5 million ginger processing facility which will produce powdered, crystallised and syruped ginger for the export market. This venture is part of the revival of the Fijian ginger industry which was devasted in the 1990s by a nematode infestation. The revival is being aided by the use of disease-free ginger 'seeds' through the EU-funded Facilitating Agricultural Commodity Trade (FACT) project in collaboration with the Fijian Department of Agriculture.
I've always assumed that Victorian ginger beer was an alcoholic beverage as this was the only way for people to drink poor quality water. But I couldn't understand how children could drink it as well. I've now found out that the UK Excise Tax Regulations (1855) stated that ginger beer could not have an alcohol content greater than two per cent. It was this requirement which made the drink popular with children.
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