Governments worldwide are scrambling to stockpile Tamiflu, made by the Swiss firm Roche AG, and another antiflu drug made by GlaxoSmithKline, Relenza, hoping they can hold an outbreak at bay.

Tamiflu does not cure bird flu, but experts hope it will help reduce its severity if taken early enough.

Within days of the first reports that star anise was the main source of shikimic acid, which is used in Tamiflu, its price more than doubled to 14 yuan (C$2) per kilogram.

The cost of a box of Tamiflu in Hong Kong, 350 kilometres southeast of Gulong, China has gone from about US$25 (C$29) to as much as US$130 (C$151) in a matter of weeks. Many doctors and pharmacies have run out.

Spice trader Ketan Mehta from Bombay says booming interest in the hard-to-grow spice means demand will eclipse supply for a while.

“There will be a great shortage of star anise seed if things continue like this,“ he said as farmers boxed his shipment.

At least six pharmaceutical firms in China snapped up hundreds of tonnes of star anise each in the hope that they could make their own Tamiflu or develop other bird flu remedies.

Most of the world‘s star anise is grown in the hills of Guangxi and shipped overseas. The sudden attention gave a shot in the arm to the tiny star anise world, centred in Guangxi. Its farmers harvest 30,000–50,000 tonnes a year, or about 70 percent of the world’s total output of the spice.

Of course, if Tamiflu turns out to be ineffective against a new form of bird flu, or if the virus develops a resistance to the drug, the spice farmers of Guangxi and the rest of the world might be out of luck.

After an unusually small harvest in 2001, prices soared to the highest anyone here had ever seen, well above current levels.

“Bird flu may save the star anise farmer,“ said Wei Xingsong, deputy director of the Guangxi Star Anise Confederation and head of a company in Gulong that sells star anise to exporters.

Star anise exporter Huang Chuhua agrees. He says domestic pharmaceutical firms appear to have stopped buying the spice for the time being, but they still have agents in the field.

“That‘s proof they still want the product,“ he said.

“If they all decide to take one to 2,000 tonnes, then the market has been cut in half . As I see it, the market will continue to go up.”

Of course, if Tamiflu turns out to be ineffective against a new form of bird flu, or if the virus develops a resistance to the drug, the spice farmers of Guangxi and the rest of the world might be out of luck.