Former builder is finding ways to extract value from medicinal plants. Iva Pocock reports
When the founder of Ballygowan, Geoff Reid, declared back in the 1980s that he would sell bottled water to the Irish, people scoffed and his plan was compared to selling sand to the Arabs. Perhaps marketing nettles and dandelions here may be seen by some in a similar light, but that is exactly what Brendan Duffy is doing with his company, Irish Organic Herbs.
Originally from Co Monaghan, where he grew up on a mixed farm, Duffy hit on the pioneering idea when he returned to Ireland in the mid-1990s after years of running his own construction business and a few years living in France.
"When I came back I got together with a scientist friend of mine to look into setting up business in the ecological area. We looked into a number of things and then settled on medicinal and aromatic plants," he explains.
As knowledge of commercially grown herbs for medicinal use in Ireland essentially did not exist, Duffy, enlisted the help of Germain Leveille, a botanist in UCD, and Sabina Waneik, a qualified horticulturalist specialising in herbs, and started growing trials of six plants in the Organic Centre, Co Leitrim in 1997.
"The results were positive, we'd done the market research and knew what was in demand. We were producing pilot-scale dried medicinal herbs for which we had to set up a quality production system."
The herbs were successfully sold to a small manufacturer in England and Duffy was spurred on by an EU Commission study from the late 1990s showing that of 70,000 hectares of medicinal and aromatic plans cultivated in Europe, only 50 acres were in Ireland. "Most of that was Eucalyptus foliage for decorative purposes," he says.
Once they had established it was possible to grow herbs such as echinacea, valerian, milk thistle, nettles and dandelions here on a commercial scale, they sought out organic growers and looked into developing their own value-added products, such as herbal tinctures, with the help of agencies such as An Bord Glas.
The company is now producing 12 different herbal tinctures, available countrywide in health food shops.
The rigorous demands of production standards means the herbs are sent to a certified herbal apothecary in Leicester, England.
"The whole process is organically certified so in the extraction process only herb, alcohol and water are used, and the alcohol is organic."
Traceability is key, he says: "From seed to sale we can tell exactly where our products have moved along the chain.We can tell which field a certain bottle of echinacea comes from." Duffy, and his brother Peter who looks after marketing and sales, are both keen to promote research and education about herbs.
"Most EU countries have a national research centre into medicinal herbs but not here. We see this as very important, as well as increasing public awareness. We want to form partnerships with third level institutes, practitioners, growers and manufacturers to promote and develop medicinal herbal knowledge in Ireland."
To this end, the Duffys organise herb tour walks with a herbalist and horticulturalist at different venues such as Airfield Trust, Co Dublin.
The growth of medicinal herb cultivation in Finland has provided a useful model, says Duffy.
"Twenty years ago there was none grown there; now there are over 2000 hectares and some excellent small businesses, many which include health farms."
At present the company is moving to the Quality Food Hub in Drumshambo, Co Leitrim, supported by various agencies such as Bord Bia. They are researching possible new value-added products such as cosmetics, aided by the Enterprise Ireland West Business Innovation Centre.
Duffy is optimistic about the future of medicinal herbs, although he is somewhat nervous about the impending EU directive on herbal medicines which may require each herbal product to be licensed.
"We don't know what the fee or implementation costs will be. This could add to overheads and may mean we have to concentrate only on the best-selling herbs."
To date these are echinacea (good for boosting the immune system), milk thistle (a liver tonic reputedly taken by some to ease a hang-over) and valerian (good for relaxation and sleep).
Further details are available at: www.irishorganicherbs.com