Wed, 01/12/2004 - 01:00 | by admin
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Most people have heard of and even drunk rosehip tea, but few realize that rosehips are also used in a wide variety of foodstuffs as well as in cosmetics and even ladies' tights. These are just some of the opportunities being targeted by Chile’s Coesam.
Chile's family-owned Coesam Group has been exporting dried rosehip shells, its main product, for over 30 years. But now the company is preparing to launch its rosehip cosmetics, as well as other natural products, in the enormous U.S. market.
"We have spent more than a year working to launch in the United States," reveals Carlos Amín, Coesam’s executive vice-president. "Our project for next year is to invade the U.S. market with rosehip."
Some 95% of Coesam's annual sales of roughly US$3 million are exports, with Germany and Japan representing 40% and 30%, respectively. But its sales to the United States currently amount to only US$150,000 a year.
However, due to a new business alliance with a Chicago company, the company believes the U.S. could jump to third, or even second place in its ranking of export markets. "We think it is possible to sell 250,000 units of cosmetic products a year in the United States and that would be worth about US$1 million," says Amín.
Coesam's business partners in the United States are advising the company on product specifications, packaging and marketing, and are due to deliver a business plan this December. The launch is scheduled for April 2005. As well as rosehip cosmetics, it will probably include uvatherapy - a range of cosmetics based on oil extracted from grape seeds - and St. John's Wort, a medicinal herb used as an antidepressant.
The Chile-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that came into force on January 1, 2004 favors the initiative by reducing import tariffs on Coesam’s products to zero, down from 4%. However, for Amín, the FTA’s most relevant aspect is the welcome it symbolizes to Chilean products. "The fact that the United States has opened the door to Chile represents an enormous opportunity and we have to be careful not to burn that chance," he notes.
Initially, Coesam expected to face large hurdles to enter the U.S. market but found that requirements were "reasonable and logical," reports Amín. Most major obstacles were eliminated because Switzerland and Japan have certified Coesam's rosehip production as organic - the Swiss certificate is valid in the U.S. - and Coesam is in the process of obtaining ISO 9000 certification. Also important is the company's ability to trace product development from start to finish.
If successful, Coesam will be returning to a market where it raked in US$1 million in television marketing sales of rosehip cosmetics over 18 months in the late nineties. These sales to a mainly Hispanic audience in Miami ended when the television advertising campaign inevitably completed its cycle.
Seeds of growth
Coesam was founded in 1974 by Amín's father, dentist Dr. Carlos Amín who, at eighty, is the company’s president. It started to export that same year, selling two tonnes of dehydrated whole rosehips to an important Dusseldorf-based tea producer, a company that it has continued to supply ever since.
Today, the company exports almost 800 tonnes a year of dry rosehip shells, crushed into a coarse or fine powder, for use in different manufacturing processes, and this represents some 60% of its sales. However, in the 1990s, Coesam began to produce its own line of cosmetics from rosehip seed oil and now accounts for 95% of Chile’s output of manufactured rosehip products.
Soon after its foundation, Coesam began joint studies with local research institutions and universities into the medicinal benefits of rosehip. These identified the local fruit's rich levels of Vitamin C and of antioxidants betacarotene and lycopene. "It is widely accepted that rosehip oil regenerates skin tissue and repairs damaged skin," says Amín.
Chile commands about 85% of the world's supply of raw rosehips, partly thanks to the superior qualities of rosehips from the Rosa Mosqueta, or Rosa aff. Rubignosa, which grows wild in the south of the country. In its early days, Coesam harvested fruit from these wild plants by hand and dried the rosehips on trays in the sun.
But today, the company obtains more than 25% of its production from its 100-hectare organic farm in the Cabrero district of Region VIII, where mechanized irrigation, harvesting and processing are in place. Moreover, it now grows a special variety of rosehip that was genetically selected, bred and patented after five years of painstaking research in the nineties supported by Fundación Chile, a Santiago-based technology transfer institute.
"The patented variety has more Vitamin C, more protein, and is more resistant to climate," explains Amín. The variety has now been in production for two years and also allows Coesam to guarantee uniform quality.
In all, the company has invested some US$3 million and employs a permanent staff of 36 at its headquarters in Santiago, where its cosmetic laboratories are also based, and 30 at its plantation. At the peak of the rosehip harvest from March to May, Coesam provides work to 105 people.
Product innovation
"There is a whole world of uses for rosehip," says Amín, who left the army in 1979 to join the family firm. "The potential range of use only requires motivation, imagination and scientific proof of the products' benefits," he adds.
To this end, Coesam set up a scientific foundation in Spain in 2001 to study the health benefits of rosehip and to add weight to the many research papers produced by Chilean institutions over the last 20 years. Its most recent innovations include organic rosehip honey from the bees used to pollinate the plants.
In 2003, however, the company moved away from its exclusive focus on rosehips and started a "more innovative, aggressive business" to develop products from other typical Chilean plants. It started by adding medicinal herbs, such as St. John's Wort, Dark Willow and Echinacea, to its organic plantation.
It has also gone on to develop a new line of seaweed products and pine cone decorations. And, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, it has exported 350,000 cones collected from the floor of radiata pine forests in Chile's Region VIII to Canada, Germany and Denmark to be used as Christmas adornments.
The company's next project is to develop new products from the 5,000 geese that eat the weeds at its rosehip plantation, reveals Amín. The company is applying for a grant from CORFO, Chile’s economic development agency, to develop organic goose paté and to explore possible uses for the feathers.
So far, Coesam has invented 62 different products, claims Amín. However, despite the seemingly unstoppable tide of innovations, he says that Coesam does not have large growth ambitions, but is seeking to consolidate its position. It forecasts sales in 2005 of a little over US$4 million, some 21% higher than the US$3.3 million expected this year.
"We are happy with the fact that we take the whole process through from the plantation to manufactured products and participate in marketing products abroad. We are small, we are few, but we are doing things done by big companies," concludes Amín.
Harvesting the Export Potential of Rosehips
By By Emily RussellPrintSend to friend
Most people have heard of and even drunk rosehip tea, but few realize that rosehips are also used in a wide variety of foodstuffs as well as in cosmetics and even ladies' tights. These are just some of the opportunities being targeted by Chile’s Coesam.
Chile's family-owned Coesam Group has been exporting dried rosehip shells, its main product, for over 30 years. But now the company is preparing to launch its rosehip cosmetics, as well as other natural products, in the enormous U.S. market.
"We have spent more than a year working to launch in the United States," reveals Carlos Amín, Coesam’s executive vice-president. "Our project for next year is to invade the U.S. market with rosehip."
Some 95% of Coesam's annual sales of roughly US$3 million are exports, with Germany and Japan representing 40% and 30%, respectively. But its sales to the United States currently amount to only US$150,000 a year.
However, due to a new business alliance with a Chicago company, the company believes the U.S. could jump to third, or even second place in its ranking of export markets. "We think it is possible to sell 250,000 units of cosmetic products a year in the United States and that would be worth about US$1 million," says Amín.
Coesam's business partners in the United States are advising the company on product specifications, packaging and marketing, and are due to deliver a business plan this December. The launch is scheduled for April 2005. As well as rosehip cosmetics, it will probably include uvatherapy - a range of cosmetics based on oil extracted from grape seeds - and St. John's Wort, a medicinal herb used as an antidepressant.
The Chile-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that came into force on January 1, 2004 favors the initiative by reducing import tariffs on Coesam’s products to zero, down from 4%. However, for Amín, the FTA’s most relevant aspect is the welcome it symbolizes to Chilean products. "The fact that the United States has opened the door to Chile represents an enormous opportunity and we have to be careful not to burn that chance," he notes.
Initially, Coesam expected to face large hurdles to enter the U.S. market but found that requirements were "reasonable and logical," reports Amín. Most major obstacles were eliminated because Switzerland and Japan have certified Coesam's rosehip production as organic - the Swiss certificate is valid in the U.S. - and Coesam is in the process of obtaining ISO 9000 certification. Also important is the company's ability to trace product development from start to finish.
If successful, Coesam will be returning to a market where it raked in US$1 million in television marketing sales of rosehip cosmetics over 18 months in the late nineties. These sales to a mainly Hispanic audience in Miami ended when the television advertising campaign inevitably completed its cycle.
Seeds of growth
Coesam was founded in 1974 by Amín's father, dentist Dr. Carlos Amín who, at eighty, is the company’s president. It started to export that same year, selling two tonnes of dehydrated whole rosehips to an important Dusseldorf-based tea producer, a company that it has continued to supply ever since.
Today, the company exports almost 800 tonnes a year of dry rosehip shells, crushed into a coarse or fine powder, for use in different manufacturing processes, and this represents some 60% of its sales. However, in the 1990s, Coesam began to produce its own line of cosmetics from rosehip seed oil and now accounts for 95% of Chile’s output of manufactured rosehip products.
Soon after its foundation, Coesam began joint studies with local research institutions and universities into the medicinal benefits of rosehip. These identified the local fruit's rich levels of Vitamin C and of antioxidants betacarotene and lycopene. "It is widely accepted that rosehip oil regenerates skin tissue and repairs damaged skin," says Amín.
Chile commands about 85% of the world's supply of raw rosehips, partly thanks to the superior qualities of rosehips from the Rosa Mosqueta, or Rosa aff. Rubignosa, which grows wild in the south of the country. In its early days, Coesam harvested fruit from these wild plants by hand and dried the rosehips on trays in the sun.
But today, the company obtains more than 25% of its production from its 100-hectare organic farm in the Cabrero district of Region VIII, where mechanized irrigation, harvesting and processing are in place. Moreover, it now grows a special variety of rosehip that was genetically selected, bred and patented after five years of painstaking research in the nineties supported by Fundación Chile, a Santiago-based technology transfer institute.
"The patented variety has more Vitamin C, more protein, and is more resistant to climate," explains Amín. The variety has now been in production for two years and also allows Coesam to guarantee uniform quality.
In all, the company has invested some US$3 million and employs a permanent staff of 36 at its headquarters in Santiago, where its cosmetic laboratories are also based, and 30 at its plantation. At the peak of the rosehip harvest from March to May, Coesam provides work to 105 people.
Product innovation
"There is a whole world of uses for rosehip," says Amín, who left the army in 1979 to join the family firm. "The potential range of use only requires motivation, imagination and scientific proof of the products' benefits," he adds.
To this end, Coesam set up a scientific foundation in Spain in 2001 to study the health benefits of rosehip and to add weight to the many research papers produced by Chilean institutions over the last 20 years. Its most recent innovations include organic rosehip honey from the bees used to pollinate the plants.
In 2003, however, the company moved away from its exclusive focus on rosehips and started a "more innovative, aggressive business" to develop products from other typical Chilean plants. It started by adding medicinal herbs, such as St. John's Wort, Dark Willow and Echinacea, to its organic plantation.
It has also gone on to develop a new line of seaweed products and pine cone decorations. And, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, it has exported 350,000 cones collected from the floor of radiata pine forests in Chile's Region VIII to Canada, Germany and Denmark to be used as Christmas adornments.
The company's next project is to develop new products from the 5,000 geese that eat the weeds at its rosehip plantation, reveals Amín. The company is applying for a grant from CORFO, Chile’s economic development agency, to develop organic goose paté and to explore possible uses for the feathers.
So far, Coesam has invented 62 different products, claims Amín. However, despite the seemingly unstoppable tide of innovations, he says that Coesam does not have large growth ambitions, but is seeking to consolidate its position. It forecasts sales in 2005 of a little over US$4 million, some 21% higher than the US$3.3 million expected this year.
"We are happy with the fact that we take the whole process through from the plantation to manufactured products and participate in marketing products abroad. We are small, we are few, but we are doing things done by big companies," concludes Amín. 
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