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Advice on Publications Available.[From an article appearing in the Queensland Country Life newspaper, written by Anne Lloyd; Telephone: 07 4638 4633; used with permission]
Growers wishing to supply the booming medicinal herb market will need to have a full quality assurance program in place within two to three years, or will find their product is unsaleable.
This is the opinion of Highfields herb grower, Mr Alan Davidson. In another note of caution, Mr Davidson says it will cost would-be entrants $70,000 to $100,000, on top of the cost of land and buildings, to buy the equipment specific to the medicinal herb industry.
As well, growers will need some other income for three or four years at least, before their herb enterprise becomes viable.
"I researched it for five years and we're just going into our fourth year now," Mr Davidson said. 'This year it will be profitable. We almost broke even last year. The previous two years were massive losses."
While different herbs fetch different prices, products generally returned about $15-$20/kg on a dry basis, with the green matter usually drying down to about one in six.
Gross returns, on average, were about 75c a square metre.
'This business is not easy. It's very labour intensive and you can't use chemicals," Mr Davidson said. 'I'd say a couple of hundred people have passed through my hands and other people's hands over the years. These are people who wanted to produce medicinal herbs, but who found it too hard and dropped out.'
'You can't go to the DPI, for example. They don't know anything about such a specialised industry."
Since no one person had all the knowledge, he personally utilised a network of about 30 people stretching from Perth in Western Australia to Townsville including Tasmania and regularly attended herb conferences to extend his network.
'That way, if I have a problem, I have somebody I can ring who can probably help me,' he said.
'Otherwise, I'm on my own. You can end up a lot of dry gullies.'
Mr Davidson recommends that anyone seriously considering embarking on herb growing, buy three commercially available books on the subject, and also subscribe to the Australian New Crops Newsletter. He also recommends the purchase of the DOOR Marketing manual.
'New crops are all about marketing. Unless you have a market for what you grow, you've got nothing,' Mr Davidson said.
He currently produces a range of crops on his Highfields property, including dandelion, skullcap, valerian, meadowsweet, a form of passionfruit, a top quality English peppermint and a blue flag wild American iris.
The roots of dandelion are used as a diuretic, and also in the treatment of gall bladder disorders, gout, eczema and acne. Roasted roots are made into dandelion tea.
Skullcap leaves and stems are used internally for nervous and convulsive complaints.
Valerian root is used as a herbal sedative or non-habit forming 'sleeping tablet', but is also extensively used in flavouring ice cream, bakery products, condiments, soft drinks, liqueurs, beer and tobacco. The product is also especially important in formulating apple flavours in food.
Other herbs which he intends trialling soon are damiana, dubbed the herbal 'Viagra,' a form of mugwort used in malaria control, and gota kola, the main ingredient in a new herbal product for cellulite control.
Alan's general approach is that anything which requires too much effort is a waste of time. For this reason he uses trickle tape irrigation, which allows him to apply exactly the amount of water that is needed at the right time, with no waste via evaporation.
Most of his plots are mulched with grass slashed from 32 hectares at the back of the property.
'With the mulch, we can go one to two weeks without watering.' Mr Davidson said. 'Putting the mulch down is labour intensive, but the yield is always good and we're putting organic matter back into the soil.'
In the past, he has bought weather damaged luceme for use as mulch, but only from properties where chemicals have not been used.
'Our entire operation has to be organic,' Mr Davidson said.
'I have to sign statutory declarations for everything I sell.'
'We're in the process of becoming certified. One of the certifying organisations now does Quality Assurance (QA), so I'I1 be going with them and getting the IS0 9002 classification.'
Any claims made by authors in the Australian New Crops Newsletter are presented by the Editors in good faith. Readers would be wise to critically examine the circumstances associated with any claims to determine the applicability of such claims to their specific set of circumstances. This material can be reproduced, with the provision that the source and the author (or editors, if applicable) are acknowledged and the use is for information or educational purposes. Contact with the original author is probably wise since the material may require updating or amendment if used in other publications. Material sourced from the Australian New Crops Newsletter cannot be used out of context or for commercial purposes not related to its original purpose in the newsletter
Contact: Dr Rob Fletcher, School of Land and Food, The University of Queensland Gatton College, 4345; Telephone: 07 5460 1311 or 07 5460 1301; Facsimile: 07 5460 1112; International facsimile: 61 7 5460 1112; Email:
r.fletcher@mailbox.uq.edu.au[
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GK; latest update 17 October 2001 by: RF