There's been some promising results from trials examining the prospect of growing traditional Chinese herbs in Tasmania.
Researchers at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) are investigating seven potential traditional Chinese medicine crops for Tasmania, including whether Chinese Bellflower, Mongolian Milkvetch, and peony can be grown here to the required quality specifications.
"There's one crop in particular, Mongolian Milkvetch, that's showing really good signs and promise," TIA Professor Dugald Close said.
"That's now being expanded into a larger scale trial this season at TIA's Vegetable Research Facility at Forthside in Tasmania's North-West.
"Mongolian Milkvetch is from the pea family, so it's a legume. It's very hardy which is good and makes it easy to manage and it doesn't need too much irrigation.
"It's a two-season crop, so it's fairly slow growing but that second season is really important for building up the bioactives that gives it the health benefits that the market is looking for."
The traditional Chinese herb industry is currently worth an estimated $130 billion a year.
"There are estimates that the industry will almost double in the next 10 years so there's great potential for Tasmania to play a role in the expansion of what is already a very large industry," Professor Close said.
The next stage of the trial will help determine whether Tasmania can become a supplier of high quality traditional Chinese medicinal herbs and products.
Professor Close said the products will have to meet exceptionally high standards.
"We've done some preliminary proof of concept studies at TIA's Vegetable Research Facility to look at the quality of the Mongolian Milkvetch product. We found that Tasmania's soils and climate are suitable for growing a product that meets the sought after bioactives," Professor Close said.
"We have to meet defined standards and if the product falls below those standards it can't be used as a health product. We had to demonstrate that our soils, climate, and management practices would be able to deliver.
"It's looking very promising. So now we're scaling it up to a larger commercial trial.
"We're now looking at some very practical questions, like the density of planting, we're looking at irrigation, nutrition, pest and disease management, soil preparation and just trying to get a reasonable grip on the margins and costs to see how it might stack up for farmers in the future.
"It's quite early days. It's a new crop so whilst we are excited about the research, we're trying not to overstate the potential implications."
Professor Close said the research could kickstart a new agricultural industry for the state based on production and processing of premium quality medicinal herbs.
"Some of our mainstay crops like poppies and pyrethrum started very small. So we just hope that maybe one of these crops might come close to that," he said.
"If they did it would just be fantastic and would provide a new option for Tasmanian growers.
"There's a lot of questions we will try and answer over the next couple of years."
The product was displayed at a major import expo in Shanghai, China, during 2024 and received positive sentiments from potential buyers.
"There was certainly a fair bit of interest. There was lots of health supplements there - lots of pills, tablets and powders and things like that but not much that's close to what we're offering here particularly if we go with a whole or cut product," Professor Close said.
The research hub for traditional Chinese medicinal herbs is a partnership between the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, AEMG Education and W&E Health.
The project is collaborating with Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine.
