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On a drizzly spring morning in a small town in rural Ontario, an event hall fills up with farmers who dominate production of one of the world’s most valuable crops: ginseng.

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In a sea of baseball caps, camouflage-print jackets and jeans, more than 100 growers have come for their annual association meeting. The gathering in Delhi, a town of 4,000, is the biggest turnout in a long time, because, after years of stellar growth, a mystery has enveloped the industry: Their biggest customer has disappeared.

Farmers talk in low voices at the back of the room about what has happened to Hang Fat, the company in Hong Kong that had become the biggest buyer of the crop over the past few years before suddenly stopping payments.

“There’s tension and there’s skepticism, and there’s obviously some worry in the farming community,” said Larry Sitko, who’s been growing ginseng since starting with one acre in 1991. “The ginseng industry isn’t going anywhere, but it might hurt a number of growers who haven’t had their money.”