We aim at setting up a cooperative business cultivating sea buckthorn (sallow thorn).

Sea buckthorn is a highly nutritious multi-functional plant so far only used by the local Nepalese population for their traditional amchi medicine. Since 2003 HimalAsia works with local Buddhist monasteries and women groups to introduce new products based on sea buckthorn such as juice, tea, jam, and in particular oil for cosmetic and medicinal purpose. Based on the growing demand for sea buckthorn cosmetics internationally HimalAsia now expands this promising business beyond harvesting naturally grown berries by women groups: producing sea buckthorn oil for the international market. The venture generates income for the local community groups as well as for the monasteries which host the nurseries for the sea buckthorn. The venture provides additional income especially for the very low cast groups; besides it strengthens the local monasteries which play a key role in educating the younger generation.

The Business
What is your product/service? HimalAsia will establish more seabuckthorn nurseries/ seabuckthorn forests in different communities of Upper and Southern Mustang in Nepal to enable a scale up of production. The diversification of the products (juice, tea, jam, Amchi medicine, oil for cosmetic and medicinal purposes) and the high nutritional value of the plants hedge the profit that will be generated through the sales on international and local markets. The initial product is the juice derived from the berries. The seabuckthorn-berries will be initially collected from wild seabuckthorn forests, this collection has started with the support of HimalAsia in summer/harvest 2004 already and the results have been very convincing. So far the communities have received training on how to prepare juice out of the berries in order to be able to sell this juice. The potential customers for this line of revenue will be mostly the large numbers of trekkers who are visiting Mustang. Local lodge owners have started selling juice prepared from the seabuckthorn berries collected from wild forests, is yielding them additional income. Additionally wholesalers from India are interested in marketing the juice derived from the fruits on large scale. The local population knows about the nutritional value of the juice, since awareness campaigns in this regard have been conducted by HimalAsia in the last years The seabuckthorn-pulp and seed oil out of the remaining trester from the juice preparation will be used for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. There is a growing international demand from various German, English and Indian cosmetic companies are interested in the supply of HimalAsias products.The seabuckthorn oil has already been tested in laboratories in Germany with very positive results. This certification process is underway in cooperation with the BCS Certification Company and various companies have demonstrated interest in purchasing the whole harvest.

Further, tea will be prepared out of the pulp of the trester (the first samples are already sold in Mustang to Trekkers and in Katmandu in Supermarkets) and from seabuckthorn-leaves special Amchi remedies will be developed in combination with other medicinal herbs. Our Customers will be: Cosmetic and medicinal companies in China, India or Europe seeking high quality seabuckthorn oil. local population,international wholesalers, trekkers who know about the nutritional (full of vitamins) value of the sea buckthorn juice Local Hospitals: for treatment for e.g. burns and scars the seabuckthorn seed-oil treatment is more efficient and less costly Explain how you will sell your product/service (marketing strategy) and how you will reach your customers (distribution strategy)? The juice has already been placed in several local stores and willbe distributed further; initial contacts to large wholesalers in India and China have been established We will market our cosmetic products primarily on international trade fairs and exhibitions with a thematic focus on sustainably produced cosmetics and oil. Since these kinds of fairs offers the best platform to met new clients, Himalsia will attend diffterent fairs in India, GB and China over the course of the next year to continuously augment its costumer/partner network. The significance and the potential business profitability of seabuckthorn are becoming increasingly known in Nepal proper and will also create competition. However, the experience, the wide network of experts and the long standing contacts to the producing cooperatives Himalasia has based on its experience of the last three years gives it a competitive advantage with regards to the quality of the product itself. The other competitors will not have certified products, an essential prerequisite for large scale export. This will pose a great advantage for Himalasia since it already started to introduce the certifying process to the women collecting group from the beginning in the three different collector groups in Mustang. Business partners: Weleda, a German pharmaceutical laboratory company and leading producer of body care products, cosmetics and treatment for Anthroposophical therapy Oehlmuehle Solling, a German retailer of ecological oils, edibles and body care Primavera, retailer of natural cosmetics, oils, wellness products, joss sticks EsselleSkincare; body care products, wholesaler of organic cosmetique products in England. Since the beginning the startup phase has been funded by the Himalsia Foundation itself. Additional contributions came in form of the prize money from the Seed Award 2005, a start-up funding by the GLS Zukunfstiftung Entwicklungshilfe and private Donors.

Development
How does your business improve the local living standards (social and environmental)? Direct Employment: Each nursery comprises one/ two gardeners. Within the next three years upscaling from currently 4 to 10-12 nurseries =20 gardeners. There will be up to 10 womens co-operatives over the next 3 years, each comprising about 30 women engaged in the collection, cultivation and sale of the wild seabuckthorn and cultivated seabuckthorn products=300 women. Income generation: Income from the seabuckthorn nurseries based in monastiries is used directly to provide a sustainable source of income for monasteries ( female/male) Additionally, income is generated for local women cooperatives, mainly from low cast goups (women biodiversity user/consumer groups). They can sell the sirup that forms the base for the juice to the local wholsesallers and the remaining trester (oil) to Himalsia via advanced purchased guarantees. For both these points: the long term spinoff potential is vast, basically covering the whole of Nepal Knowledge and skills Education and training of cultivating and harvesting seabuckthorn, both on a national and international level. Quality of living standard Diversification and optimization of the local diet by integrating seabuckthorn whose products are rich in vitamins A and C, E and omega-3 fatty acids, minerals and other active substances. Environment: The Mustang region and other similar areas in the Himalayas especially in recent years suffer from a high level of land degradation, desertification and soil erosion. Seabuckthorn plants will play a significant role in mitigating these environmental concerns.

ea Buckthorn Harvesting and Plant Information

By Admin, on October 20th, 2011

Figure 2. Newly planted Sea buckthorn produced from runners (in foreground). This picture was taken in mid September 2005 near Wingham, ON. The summer's buckwheat cover crop had been ploughed under and rye grass planted between rows.

Parts used
Leaves and young branches, Berries. Woody shrub to small tree hardy to Zone 3 (- 40C).

Seed Germination

Will germinate in 3 to 10 days after stratification to break dormancy depending on germination temperature. Stratification for 90 days at 3 to 5 C under moist conditions are required to achieve good germination when sown in the spring or in the greenhouse. Fresh seed can be sown directly in the field in the fall covered with 5 mm of soil.

Propagation

By seed, but seedling will not be identical to female plant, and may be male.

By softwood cutting simple, inexpensive, and highly successful By hardwood cutting simple, inexpensive, and moderately successful. Root cuttings will propagate quite readily. By suckering simple, inexpensive, but suckers have poor root mass and may suffer transplant shock.

Light

Full sun

Figure 3. Left Panel: Three year old sea buckthorn trees near Wingham, ON (2005). Right Panel: Four year old trees from the same orchard (2006)

Soil Type

Sea buckthorn is adapted to a wide variety of soils, and will grow on marginal land including sandy, gravely soils with poor nutrient and water retention capacities. Sea buckthorn thrives on well drained, light to medium sandy loam. Has a moderate tolerance for saline soils A soil pH between 6-7 is optimum

Moisture Needs
Although drought tolerant, a minimum of 400 mm of annual precipitation is required to ensure good fruit yield. Fruit set at an orchard near Wingham, ON occurred 2 weeks earlier in 2006 compared to 2005. For the period from May 1st to September 1st, both growing degree days (1516 vs. 1362) and crop heat units (2366 vs. 2162), were higher in 2005 compared to 2006, but rainfall was significantly higher in 2006 (335 mm vs. 239.6 mm). The additional rainfall in 2006 likely contributed positively to both the early fruit set and increased yield.

Figure 4. Berry yield from 3 year old sea buckthorn trees (left picture). Maximum fruit set occurs in trees 4 years and older (right picture).

Spacing

Orchard design is dependent on whether the fruit will be harvested mechanically or by hand. Typical orchards have about 600 to 1000 plants per acre, with 1 male for every 7 female plants. Newly planted Sea buckthorn produced from runners (in foreground). This picture was taken in mid September 2005 near Wingham, ON. The summers buckwheat cover crop had been ploughed under and rye grass planted between rows.

Harvest
When only a few trees are grown, the berries can be readily harvested by hand, requiring about the same amount of effort as harvesting raspberries. Although the thorniness of the sea buckthorn bushes can be a problem, young plants may be relatively thorn free. Some thornless varieties are currently available, and future breeding efforts should increase their numbers. As the number of trees in the orchard increases, so does the work required for harvesting the berries.

Figure 5. Pruned branch from a 4 year old tree. Berries were later removed by hand for further processing. Figures from China indicate that up to 1500 person hours per hectare are required for hand harvesting. Hand harvesting at the Wingham area orchard suggests the time to hand harvest per hectare may be significantly higher than 1500 hours, especially when trying to harvest intact berries. The fruit are strongly attached, and are not easily stripped from the branches. Experienced pickers were able to harvest intact fruit at rates of 1-1.5 kg per hour. The difficulty of removing the fruit from the tree diminishes as the season progresses. Unfortunately, fruit quality also decreases over this same period, so optimum times for harvest will need to be identified for individual growing areas. Successful commercial operation of a sea buckthorn orchard will ultimately require the development and implementation of some type of mechanical harvester. Several types have been developed, including a vibratory shaker invented in Saskatchewan. As with any crop grown for nutraceutical, medicinal or culinary use, post-harvest handling of sea buckthorn berries should conform to approved Good Agricultural Practices standards. After cleaning, the berries should be processed as soon as possible, but may be either stored at low temperature (4 to 6C), or flash frozen if immediate processing is not feasible. The shelf life of berries stored at low temperature can be up to 2 weeks.

Berries maintain their shape when thawed after freezing. The fruit harvested from the Wingham orchard is currently being used in both fresh and frozen products which are sold at a farmers market near Huntsville. The fruit is processed into a variety of products, including jelly, juice extracts, nectar salsa and bread made from the pulp and seeds following juice extraction. Young leaves have been dried and ground for use as a tea. Berry yield from 3 year old sea buckthorn trees (left picture). Maximum fruit set occurs in trees 4 years and older (right picture).

Figure 7. Four year old sea buckthorn orchard as seen from 200 metres. Note the abundance of berries, each of which is no more than 2 cm in length.

Other Considerations
As with any alternative crop, new growers should educate themselves on the cost of production and the market potential of sea buckthorn. Furthermore, prior to making any claims about the nutraceutical or medicinal properties of sea buckthorn, growers must ensure that these claims fall within the regulations established by the Natural Health Products Directorate of Health Canada.

References
Li, T.S.C and Beveridge, T.H.J. 2003. Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides): Production and Utilization. NRC Research Press, Ottawa. (www.monographs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca) Zeb, A. 2004. Important therapeutic uses of sea buckthorn (Hippophae): A review. J. of Biological Sciences 4(5): 687-693

This infosheet was authored by Jim Todd, Transition Crop Specialist, Crop Technology Branch, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.