Growing Culinary and Medicinal Herbs Commercially!They may be used fresh or in the form of their extracts or chemical compounds isolated from them to produce drugs for human or veterinary medicine. Production of medicinal herbs is limited by the demand for them in international trade.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has a list of over 20,000 common medicinal plants used in different parts of the world. Over 100 herbs are used on a regular basis. In most western countries, the vast majority of herbs are imported. In Australia 90% of herbs used commercially are imported. With cheap imported herbs freely available from Asian countries manufacturers are unwilling and unlikely to pay more for locally grown herbs, even though they would be of better quality. For this reason, the culinary herb market may be slightly easier to break into. Around the world, many plants are still gathered from their wild state, for domestic use and export. The tropical forests have been major suppliers of many herbs, but this supply is being threatened by large scale clearing of forests and by over harvesting. The decision to cultivate medicinal herbs should only be made in response to demand for particular herbs. The market is very competitive and could easily be oversupplied. Developing countries such as China, India, Thailand, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya and the Philippines grow a variety of medicinal herbs. Eastern Europe also produces large quantities, mainly for their own consumption. Other western European countries, Mediterranean countries and the United States also cultivate medicinal herbs, but they are net importers. Some of the main herbs cultivated for the medicinal drug market are;
Anise, Artemisia, Aconites, Aloes, Belladonna, Basi, Buchu, Cinchona, Dioscorea, Datura, Dill, Duboisia, Echinacea, Ergot, Ephedra, Foxglove, Ginseng, Gentians, Henbane, Hydrastis, Ipecac, Liquorice, Lemon grass, Mints, Male fern, Opium Poppy, Periwinkle, Pyrethrum, Psyllium. Papain Polygala, Podophyllum, Rauvolfia, Sweet Flag, Smilax, Senna, Strophanthus, Squill, Thyme, Vinca, Valerian, and Withania.
As demand for wild herbs increases, and supplies decrease through over harvesting, so will the desire to cultivate them and new species are constantly being discovered and trialed.
The amount of useful medicinal content in plants is usually related to the particular species. When species mainly propagate by cross breeding, it may be necessary to use vegetative propagation to maintain an even line. In some crops such as basil breeders have produced useful crosses such as some basils.
Hybrid seeds need to be produced every year. The distribution of species in the wild provides a rough guideline to suitable environmental conditions and soil types. Many herbs require special production techniques which should be checked, and established before commencing employment. Harvesting is often by hand, but mechanisation will be integrated over time. Plants are usually shade dried, with a maximum temperature of 45 degrees Celcius. The best shed situation is (1) Insulated shed with heat source and adequate ventilation.
What may be a saleable crop one year may not be the next. Trends change constantly and herb growers need to keep abreast of changes, meeting the markets current demands.
Growers need to to take a strong interest in marketing of their product. Because of the uncertainties, the medicinal or culinary herb grower should start on a small scale, matching production to market demand.
Options are to process, package, and market your own, or sell to a processor. If you are producing organically grown herbs, it is sometimes a bit easier to squeeze into a local market. Most organically grown herbs are imported. The herb market is growing annually and the demand for home grown product is increasing. Companies such as Blackmores, Greenridge Botanicals, Procare and Nature Sunshine products source some of their production locally, but they are also in a strong position to dictate price. Contact some buyers to establish realistic prices. 
When starting it is often best to sell to a small company which does not want large deliveries. Grower success will depend on long-term commitment, flexibility and investment in: agronomic understanding, broadacre mechanised production at all stages to reduce costs, minimal chemical intervention farming, quality assurance programs, plant breeding programs to develop quality standardised crop, prediction of market trends and early identification of niche markets, development of information resources, establishment of "closed" and "open" information/production networks Areas of opportunity currently include: domestic fresh-cut and dried culinary herbs, fresh-cut herbs for the overseas culinary/catering market (Asian and off-season US/Europe), specialised production, e.g. essential oil, medicinal crops, "new" herbs (pharmaceutical), value adding/down-stream processing ventures, e.g. tea blends, gourmet products, phytopharmaceuticals, extractives, joint ventures with overseas investment for specific overseas markets.
Peppermint is the major mint produced in the United States. Between 1972-75 and 1990-94, production of peppermint increased 108 percent. Spearmint production also rose during this period, by 87 percent. Very little mint oil is imported, as it is considered inferior to domestic oil. Imported oil is usually blended with domestically-produced oil and re-exported. Washington and Oregon are the two largest producers of both species of mint. Indiana is the third-largest mint state in terms of acreage. Mint production has only begun in the past several years in Idaho, with acreage devoted to mint showing signs of expanding. Mint is also produced in Wisconsin, Montana, and other states.
Each spearmint grower in the Pacific Northwest has an allotment base, which is determined by spearmint oil sales plus inventory during a set period before the order was enacted. Each year the marketing order committee (composed of growers) determines spearmint demand for the year and allocates the expected quantity demanded to each grower's base allotment. Oils produced in certain locations are considered to be of premium quality due to their flavour. For example, peppermint oil from the Willamette Valley in Oregon, and spearmint oil produced in the Midwest, are considered premium oils. These oils receive a higher price than the peppermint or spearmint oils produced in other locations. Also, Scotch spearmint oil has a more desirable flavour than native spearmint oil, and it also receives a higher price. Peppermint oil has more end uses than does spearmint oil because of consumer preferences. Peppermint is the number-one mint used in chewing gum, the most important use of mint. It is also used extensively in toothpaste, mouthwash, candy, and liqueur. Spearmint is used mostly in toothpaste and mouthwash. Both are used in medicines. The growing worldwide interest in Ayurvedic medicine, and associated Indian medicinal herbs, is obviously now translating into increased use in herbal products being used/made here in Australia and elsewhere.
While most herbs are currently being supplied through India and other Asian countries, such requests indicate that buyers are now looking to other countries to supply. This may be an area of opportunity for Australian growers prepared to do some homework on Ayurvedic medicine and the herbs now appearing in local products.
There is certainly a large worldwide demand for the herb St John's Wort at present and suppliers in Australia are receiving more requests than they can fill. Having St John's Wort on a farm isn't necessarily going to translate into dollars in the bank - returns will depend on many things including concentration of plants, weed infestation, ease of access for harvesting and processing and most importantly hypericin content.
People encouraged by all the media hype on this herb need to do their homework thoroughly before committing to supplying it and should closely note trends in demand and supply.
The appeal of growing medicinal herbs seems to outweigh that of culinary herbs. Certainly some growers are making a good living out of supplying medicinal herbs to the domestic market; others are not so fortunate, finding that small quantities are difficult to sell with return for effort far below that expected.
While culinary herbs may not have the same charisma there are certainly opportunities for growers to sell fresh herbs locally as well as intra- and inter-state in most areas of Australia. Cultivation of fresh-cut culinary herbs has been a steady industry for decades providing decent livings for many growers at various levels of production, although a large percentage of production has been at cottage industry level.
Requests from the food processing industry for tonnage of fresh-cut herbs on a regular and on-going basis have unfortunately been largely unfilled because there are insufficient growers producing broadacre culinary herbs in Australia, or even considering entering this side of the industry. Unless more growers start looking at culinary herbs such opportunities will be lost to other countries.
Jump here to download your FREE eBook, "Gardening without Water!
|
