Comment · Fri, April 28, 2023 · ND Owner
Any update on Ecklonia Cava?
Original post in this thread
jotii · 14 points
As topic says, I know this get asked a few times every year but it is a big one to have from a quality source.
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
Koreans don't like working with Americans that don't have some sort of connection in Korea. It's weird. Same shit in Japan. If you are an American company with no ties to Korea, they just ghost you. They probably think: "Who the fuck are these random crazy white people?!?" You know how Americans are the only ones that randomly smile and talk to strangers out in the wild? Everyone else thinks we are nuts. "Who the fuck is this rando trying to talk to me?!?" I think it's like that, but for business. You need some personal connections in Korea for other Koreans to even consider working with you. Pair that with the fact there are no botanical reference standards for Ecklonia cava, and that most of the shit on the market is just random seaweed being mislabeled, and it gets tough to make a product up to our standards. China will sell you what they claim is Ecklonia cava, but it's just more untested shit without validation.
Luckily, I am one of those crazy Americans that randomly talks to people out in public. I was on a flight recently, and I started chatting with the woman next to me. It turns out she lives in Florida, but is originally from Korea. Her family runs a seaweed farm in Korea. She is confident she will be able to get us real Ecklonia cava. So we got that going for us, which is nice.