GojiTrees Natural Health

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The Tibetan Goji Berry Myth 

Since the early 21st century, the names “Himalayan Goji berry” and “Tibetan Goji berry” have become common in the global health food market, applied to berries claimed to have been grown or collected in the Himalaya region (or sometimes “the Tibetan and Mongolian Himalayas,” a misnomer because the Himalayas do not extend into Mongolia, which lies approximately 1000 miles to the northeast). Although none of the companies marketing such berries specifies an exact location in the Himalayas or Tibet where their berries are supposed to be grown, Earl Mindell’s website states that his “Himalayan” Goji products do not actually come from the Himalayas, but instead from Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and the Tian Shan Mountains of western Xinjiang, China.

Although some Lycium species do grow in some regions of Tibet, commercial export production of Goji berries in the Tibetan Himalaya’s - the world’s tallest mountains - must be a myth fabricated for a marketing advantage, as this mountain range is a region inhospitable to commercial cultivation of plant foods of any kind. Low temperatures are prevalent year round in the Himalayan valleys throughout southern and western Tibet where bleak desolation is unrelieved by any vegetation beyond sparse, low bushes. The Tibetan Plateau, comprising most of Tibet north of the Himalayas, lies at more than 10,000 feet in altitude, with poor soil and arid climate conditions unfavorable for fruit crops. Defined by the geography of Tibet, particularly in the western Himalayas, year-round cold nighttime temperatures and frost would inhibit plant bud development and prevent fruit formation.

Existing in Tibet are minimal subsistence agriculture and impoverished crop management and transportation facilities unsupportive of commercial berry production. Although limited fertile regions suitable for food crops exist in the valleys of Lhasa, Shigaste, Gyantse, and the Brahmaputra River, there are no objective economic, scientific, or government reports on the commercial production of Lycium berry species from these Tibetan regions.