Herbal high

28-Jul-2008 - Last updated on 15-Mar-2017 at 05:55 GMT

As the 'natural' trend sweeps the nation, there's no shortage of demand for organic herbs and spices, but can supply keep up? asks Lynda Searby

When Mike Brook, founder of dry herb supplier The Organic Herb Trading Company, started his first herb growing venture in 1982, there weren't any producers of organic herbs and spices and there certainly wasn't a market for them.

Fast forward a quarter of a century and, according to the Soil Association, approximately 70 dried organic herbs and spices are now available for culinary use. Whole black peppercorns sell in the largest volumes, followed by mixed herbs, oregano and paprika. The multiples have introduced own-label organic herb and spice ranges, and responding to demand from organic caterers, herb and spice companies are now offering catering packs of their most popular lines.

Suppliers agree that the rise of organic herbs and spices is consumer-led, stemming from a growing awareness of what they are eating and a desire to lead more wholesome lifestyles.

"I believe it is a result of consumers wanting to live a 'cleaner' life," says Julian Burnham of organic dried herb supplier Hambleden Herbs. "This attitude covers all aspects of their lives but especially what they put into their bodies. As a nation we are all becoming more aware of what we eat; I think the strong message with organic goods is the holistic approach to farming. It is not just that there are no so-called 'nasties' in the final products but also that the environment and the farmers have been looked after during the growing process."

Supply and demand

There's no question that demand for organic herbs and spices is strong, as manufacturers clamour to create these 'cleaner' products, but what about supply?

In the UK, demand outstrips supply by some margin, according to Burnham. "There are growers in the UK drying herbs such as peppermint and parsley, but as yet we have not been able to secure the required volumes, which is why we import from overseas.

"Cost is also an issue - it is significantly cheaper to bring product in from Europe than to purchase it in the UK. My understanding is that this is partly due to our inconsistent weather and the low yields that farmers get due to unseasonal rains or cold snaps."

Supply issues are not just limited to herbs and spices being sourced from within the UK. If anything, the uncertainties are greater with herbs and spices grown overseas as, besides being affected by weather patterns and pests, imported herbs and spices are at the mercy of shipping companies and transport agencies.

Of course, all of these issues - bar the failure of crops due to pests - are common to conventional herbs and spices. However, the smaller size of the organic market - Brook estimates that the conventional market is 40 times the size of the organic market - makes it much more vulnerable.

"You're much more likely to get a shortage in organic because if you have a serious crop failure in a major producing country you can't just source the herb from somewhere else - the likelihood is that it is the only producing country. The conventional market, on the other hand, is a truly global market and the quantities are huge," he says.

According to Burnham, organic herbs and spices that are currently scarce include pink peppercorns, which are unavailable due to a crop failure in South Africa, and saffron, which is over double its price due to stock shortages driven by a contaminated harvest in India.

One food manufacturer to have been affected by these shortages is Westcountry Spice Company, a producer of organic pastes, cooking sauces and table sauces, which uses saffron as a key ingredient in its tikka sauce. "We've been hit quite badly by the price rises," admits md Chris Carnegie. "Saffron was already one of the most expensive spices and now it has nearly doubled in price. It was around £1,200 a kilo but is more like £2,000 now. We've had similar problems before with other herbs and spices. We either just grin and bear it or stop production."

In this instance, the company has chosen to 'grin and bear it', but there have been occasions when availability issues have forced it to stop production.

The Monsoon season

"The worst scenario we've ever had was with curry leaf, which is naturally dried, but because of a monsoon in the producing country, the leaves didn't get dried, so we were out of curry leaf for four months," says Carnegie. "There was also a problem with black onion seeds at one point and we couldn't get them for love nor money. The crop got cross-contaminated with another seed so our normal supplier, Steenbergs, refused to accept it. We ended up having to phone around the world and managed to locate some and bring it back to the UK via a third party."

Carnegie is philosophical about such crises and treats them as part and parcel of being in the business of using over 70 fresh herbs and spices. That said, he does take some preventative measures to ward off potential disasters. "We've got a schedule of growing patterns and availability/prices and we're very conscious of weather abroad. If one of our supplying countries is hit by a monsoon or drought I'll make enquiries to find out whether any of our products have potential problems."

Another organic producer, Graig Farm Organics, having fallen victim to supply issues in the past, nowadays uses dried herbs for their longer shelf-life and keeps stocks replenished by reordering every couple of months from The Organic Herb Trading Company.

The herbs and spices are mainly used in its sausage and burger range, and include oregano and chilli powder for its Mexican Sausages, thyme, marjoram, sage and nutmeg for its Traditional Oxford Pork Sausages, and allspice and coriander for its South African style Boerwurst Sausages.

Then there are certain herbs and spices that, whatever the weather, simply aren't grown organically. Westcountry Spice, for example, has tried - and failed - to source organic kaffir lime leaves, and Real Organic Foods has been unable to track down Thai basil. Difficulties in obtaining organic lemon grass also held up the launch of the company's Thai sauce range.

Besides being prepared to cope with supply issues, food manufacturers going down the organic route also have to be prepared to pay for the privilege. Brook estimates that the price differential between organic and non-organic herbs and spices ranges from 28 to 150%. "It is quite high," he admits. "But apart from anything else, suppliers of organic herbs have got the certification costs, for each link in the supply chain, and the internal cost to a company of providing their audit trail for organic certification is huge."

Long-term outlook

However, he predicts that in future, this gap will narrow.

"There are a number of factors that will, in the longer term, make conventional herbs and spices more expensive. Conventional farming is reliant on oil for both pesticides and fertilisers, which is pushing up costs," he says. "There are also other costs associated with conventional farming, such as dealing with carbon dioxide emissions, water pollution and loss of top soil through erosion."

That said, the fact that organic herbs and spices command such a premium is no bad thing in his view. "In most cases organic herbs and spices are of a higher quality than conventional ones. That's not necessarily because of organic farming methods, it's because the conventional herb market is dictated by price, which means corners are more likely to get cut, whereas in organic, you're supplying a premium market, which allows you to take more time and care over handling your product."

The question of whether organic products taste better than their non-organic counterparts has fuelled many a lively debate. Despite a lack of substantive scientific evidence supporting either side of the argument, many proponents of organic products are still adamant that there is a discernable difference.

"On the whole, organic herbs and spices offer superior organoleptic properties to non-organic ones, due to the lack of high volume pesticides and herbicides sprayed on them, and the intense way in which non-organic products are forced on. Many non-organic products are also irradiated, which impacts on quality," says Brook.

Real Organic Foods says it has conducted taste tests, which have detected a difference in the taste of organic and non-organic herbs and spices. "I felt it was probably because organic herbs and spices are generally fresher - they go off quicker if you can't use preservatives," says owner David Morgan.

In many ways, it doesn't matter whether or not claims about the superior taste of organic products are rooted in fact. As long as products are manufactured in accordance with organic principles, a growing number of consumers will happily pay the higher price.

So although, from a manufacturer's perspective, organic herbs and spices come with a large amount of additional baggage - from cost to supply unpredictability - it's a burden worth bearing. FM

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