By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
JAMAICANS AND other Caribbean nationals are being urged to take 'bush teas' and other herbs beyond just being mere home remedies, or a first recourse to the treatment of illnesses, and tap into the multi-billion dollar international market in the export of herbal products.
The challenge comes from several national and international leaders in the business and farming sectors, who are underscoring the need for Caribbean peoples to grow herbs as cash-crops, at a time when the export of traditional crops from CARICOM nations has been floundering.
Chief among the advocates for Jamaica and its CARICOM neighbours to get proactive in the herbal export trade is Lawrence Denzil Phillips, Director of the Belgium-based organisation, the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE).
Noting that the international herbal industry is valued at US$6 billion, Mr. Phillips laments that the Caribbean occupies less than three per cent of that industry. Speaking in an interview with The Gleaner, the CDE official pointed out that the region must take key steps to identify and mass-produce "special reality products which are not easily available elsewhere". He cited Sarsaparilla as one such herb.
Just producing herbs as raw material is not enough, warned Mr. Phillips, who is nudging the region to go a step further by "branding, packaging, and taking a herbal product and developing it into value-added products."
"We are trying to put the Caribbean on the map in the herbal field, because at present, it is a minor player in the world herbal industry," remarked Mr. Phillips.
The CDE Director is co-ordinating the Caribbean Herbs Business Forum, which is in progress at the Half Moon Hotel in St. James, and will run until tomorrow.
Over 150 representatives from the region, European Union, Australia, Canada and the Pacific Region is in attendance at the Forum, which is aimed at building linkages within the herbal industry between companies in the Caribbean and the international arena.
In the meantime, the CDE reports that some 15 to 20 companies from the European Union are currently in Jamaica to explore what possibilities Jamaica and other regional territories possess in terms of producing herbs for the cosmetic industry, organic herb sector and the ethno-medicine sector in Canada and the Pacific region.
The CDE provides technical and financial assistance for individuals and organisations wishing to develop viable herbal commodities.
Pointing to the role of the CDE in the Caribbean Herbs Business Forum, Regional Co-ordinator of the CDE, Peter Alling discloses, "We (CDE) will be following the companies closely to see what develops out of the contacts here and to help to document the companies, so that they can be forwarded to us as proposals for assistance."
