Financial Times - Offering better links to herbal health care

There is something fascinating about factory visits – to see where and how the products we buy come to be, and the standards used to ensure that they are safe for all. That’s why such visits are fascinating as they don't happen that often as this country seems to be rather lapse when it comes to ensuring those standard, making sure that there are regulations that all companies have to meet.

On the world stage the Sri Lanka contribution to the herbal industry is negligible, yet there is a company that is fighting a battle to become a presence. So far it seems to be doing a pretty good job, especially when it comes to setting standards to ensure, besides the lack of those “pesky” regulations, acceptance in foreign markets, and so far that's exactly what Link Natural has done.

With its factory in Dompe, the company has been around since 1984, starting with the extraction of spice essential oils, such as nutmeg, clove cinnamon bark and black pepper, for its most famous product, Samahan – where the daily production is 320,000 sachets to be sold worldwide – to its latest offerings, including teas and beauty products.

For the original products, they still remain a 100 percent export activity, and as Gamani Samarasekera, a former manager and now a consultant, said, “A few years ago I was in France at the world renowned Food and Ingredient exhibition where the experts there were amazed at the quality of our oils.” And this in France, allegedly the capital of smell - of the perfumed kind.

As for the expansion, that also takes in generic Ayurvedic pharmaceuticals, herbal medicine and spa products all under one roof. From the early 1990s, Link Natural began to expand its human resources in research and development, where scientists in a variety of disciplines, such as chemistry, pharmacy and botany were joined by chemical engineers and Ayurvedic practitioners to come up with their own processes, protocols and quality controls, as well as products, especially for use by local Ayurvedic practitioners.

The reason was at the time, and up to a point to this day, that there were no standards, specifications or manufacturing rules available. So the company worked them out itself, as well as finding out what the importers regulations were to ensure custom acceptance in those countries, that now include India, the US, Germany, Japan and the Middle East, among others.

On top of this, visiting the laboratory area showed off the necessary equipment to ensure all procedures meet those criteria, from electro-spectrometers to gas liquid chromatography, where tests are done from the raw material arriving right up to the finished product.

For a company that is trying to put the country on the map, it does face a number of difficulties, especially from a lack of locally grown herbs and spices, the ingredients for all the products.

Most is imported, meaning it's dried and not fresh, a fact that adds to delays to manufacturing as these products have to be authenticated and tested for usability, according to Mr. Samarasekera.

He said, “There are a number of local suppliers who don't like delivering here as they have to wait around for their delivery to be tested, whereas that is not necessarily done in the well-over 100 other smaller manufacturers of similar products in the country. For the supplier it's a win-win scenario as if we refuse their raw material, they can always sell it down the road.”

Once a spice is passed, steam is used to extract the needed oil from the crushed raw material, where it is collected as the water and oil condenses and the water removed. For herbs, organic solvents are used to extract the needed ingredient. For exports, the solvent has to register below 5ppm (parts per million) to be acceptable. And the standards go on, where the chimney has to be 30 feet above the highest building in the compound to satisfy ISO standards, of which the company has two.

To ensure that the raw material doesn't degenerate, the company has a stock pile of produce that doesn't have a shelf life of longer than two months before use. Once the process begins, the raw material is checked by hand to get rid of foreign material, where women are used due to their better dexterity.

And then the various spices and herbs get sent to the relevant areas to be mixed and heated and crushed to fit the product’s requirements, be it the flagship Samahan or the herbal toothpaste, Sudantha, and beyond.

One great thing to see was the use of masks and earmuffs to protect the worker from dust and noise, something that is lacking in a large variety of other factories.

When it comes to social responsibility, it was noticed that there were a number of women doing jobs that could easily have been automated, but as Mr. Samarasekera said: “There aren't too many jobs going in this area so we offer these so a wage can be earned. And the women's jobs are rotated because we know the work is repetitive.”

But back to the market, Devapriya Nugawela, Link Natural’s Chairman and Managing Director, said on arrival, “The world market in 2004 was worth $2.5 billion, and the yearly growth is 10-15 percent: where the herbal sector is one of the fastest growing in the world due to shifting parameters and paradigms of modern lifestyle.” Or in layman's terms, people are being better educated to take better care of themselves, as well as the West finally realising the benefits of nature's bounty, something Asian physicians have known for thousands of years.

This is all good and well, and bodes well for Link Natural in its bid to reach exports of Rs 500 million by 2008-2009, up from Rs 150 million today. But there is still the matter of the government not setting those standards to help increase the country's market share by ensuring quality is the word that counts.