Not everyone is saying the echinacea business on the Prairies can’t be a viable, long-term industry.
Some growers and processors think the challenges are being exaggerated by Bioriginal Food and Science Corp., a Saskatoon company that recently dropped plans to build a processing plant.
“I think echinacea is a good crop for Western Canada,” said New Norway, Alta., producer Rick Cole.
“To say it isn’t a good crop to grow here is basically wrong.”
When Bioriginal announced it was not going to build the extraction plant, it suggested other parts of North America were better suited for echinacea production.
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Quality, price down
It also said North American production had increased sharply over the past few years, crushing prices and lowering quality.
Cole said other parts of the continent may be better at growing echinacea purpurea, but not as good at producing echinacea angustifolia. And he said other growers he has spoken to can still get decent prices for angustifolia root, regardless of the plummeting prices for other echinacea products.
Bill Rak of Unity, Sask., owns the processing company Wise Owl Herbs. He thinks there will be long-term demand for prairie-grown echinacea.
“There are very few environments (in the world) that have the quality of land and air and the soil and the water to produce the strong markers that we have in our medicinal herbs,” said Rak.
“We have great opportunities here.”
Cole said the early days of echinacea production were marked by far too rosy predictions of high demand and high prices. But now some predictions about the crop’s prairie future are becoming too pessimistic.
“I don’t think either is a good thing,” said Cole.
In the end, he thinks serious producers will find that echinacea angustifolia fits into a healthy niche in Western Canada.
“It’s basically a short grass prairie plant.”
