A useful business is selling medicinal herbs. How to make money by collecting and selling medicinal herbs

The rich experience of human interaction with nature provided contemporaries with a huge store of knowledge about plants that have medicinal properties.

Thanks to this, areas of traditional medicine began to emerge. Despite the fact that today more and more drugs made on a chemical basis have begun to be produced, people have little confidence in them.

At the same time, there is an increasing interest in natural recipes, and therefore in medicinal herbs, which, when used correctly, produce an excellent healing effect. Naturally, in order for medicinal herbs, which can also be grown in greenhouses, to appear in pharmacies, it is necessary that someone do this.

Currently, there are about one hundred and sixty names of medicinal plants that are approved for use. That is why the sale of medicinal herbs, if well organized, has become a source of income for many.

Natural remedies are used for both internal and external use. The first category includes infusions, decoctions, hydroalcoholic tinctures and extracts. In the second - herbal baths, wraps, lotions, compresses.

For both categories, medicinal plants are used as raw materials. Therefore, in many pharmacies and relevant retail outlets that have permission, medicinal herbs are sold, among which there are special anti-asthmatic or diuretic, chest, as well as choleretic or sedative and many other herbs.

This popularity is due not only to low price and safety, but also to the possibility of long-term use of these drugs in combination with other drugs.

Growing medicinal herbs as a business is profitable. Considerable income is generated by the processing of this natural raw material due to the low costs required for equipment, as well as the constant demand for this type of product.

Production technology

The full production cycle of medicinal herbs consists of the following stages: growing the raw materials themselves, their assembly, then drying and processing, subsequent packaging and sale of medicinal herbs.

For cultivation, it is better to organize a plantation. This will require the availability of land as well as equipment. We need to purchase seeds and fertilizers. Such production as a form of business has many advantages: firstly, you can obtain controlled volumes of plants, in addition, raw materials are always available.

However, for those starting their own business, it is better at the first stage to simply purchase raw materials from special collectors, then subject them to further processing and pack them into herbal packaging. This is explained by the fact that the growing process requires certain costs, as well as knowledge in the technology of producing medicinal plants. True, when purchasing raw materials, you need to have an idea of ​​​​all varieties of herbs and exercise caution, carefully checking the collections.

Processing of raw materials

Manufacturers of herbal infusions should be aware that special GOST 24027.2-80 determines the quality of herbal raw materials. In addition, there are special organizations involved in the research of natural products. This is done by the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision Authority and the Center for Metrology and Standardization, as well as some laboratories working at pharmaceutical factories.

The incomplete process of processing herbs occurs as follows. First, the raw materials are sorted and cleaned of impurities and rotten parts, after which they are sent for drying, which is a method of preservation. The natural method involves placing the plants in a ventilated area in the shade.

Thus, all active substances and its color are preserved as much as possible in the raw material. For machine drying, a mode is selected that corresponds to the composition of a particular plant: herbs rich in essential oils are dried at temperatures up to thirty degrees.

Signs of the end of drying are a characteristic crack when the rhizomes break, as well as the possibility of grinding leaves and grass into powder, and dryness of the flowers to the touch. At the same time, well-dried fruits should not stick together into lumps when compressed.

The loss of mass of raw materials is eighty percent for leaves and berries, seventy percent for flowers, sixty percent for grass, buds and rhizomes, and forty percent for bark.

Marketable condition

The dried plants then go into herbal grinders. The size is regulated by a special sieve, based on the purpose of the plant variety. For example, for baths and poultices, raw materials are cut into pieces no larger than two millimeters, and some parts of medicinal plants generally bypass this stage during processing. These are seeds, flowers, berries and small inflorescences.

Then the crushed raw materials enter the mixer, in which the mixtures are prepared, where some components with essential oils are added to the mass by spraying, then it is dried at a temperature of about sixty degrees.

Besides the usual grinding and blending, there are other methods of processing plant herbs, such as the production of aromatic oils and the production of dry extracts. These production methods require expensive equipment, but bring good income.

Package

Medicinal herbs are usually sold in cardboard boxes. Healing infusions are packaged in fifty, one hundred and two hundred grams. Cardboard boxes, according to requirements, must be lined with parchment paper. Sometimes the herb is placed in a double paper bag.

Raw materials that have not yet been packaged should be stored in dry, ventilated areas, with little humidity, in closed bags, paper and cloth bags, boxes, boxes lined with clean white paper, or jars.

Herbs should be packaged only for their intended purpose: for example, “for colds” or “for coughs”, “for good sleep” or “for kidneys”, etc. For the correct combination of herbs according to medicinal recipes in production, the presence of a herbalist will be required. As a container at the initial stage of production, when there is no income yet, it is allowed to use ordinary resealable plastic bags.

• House in the village
• Knowledge
• List of plants
• Search for buyers
• How to quickly expand your business

In a world where there are practically no relatively free business niches left, people are increasingly turning to creativity, and also remembering the occupations and crafts of their ancestors. One of these is the collection and sale of medicinal plants. But what is necessary for the successful development of this income? Next, we will take a closer look at what the collection of medicinal herbs is like as a business.

House in the village

It is advisable to collect plants in places far from man-made pressure and industrial centers. Wooded or steppe areas are best suited for this. To effectively organize a business on medicinal herbs, you need to acquire a base - a house in a village or settlement near a forest or unplowed, abandoned agricultural land.

If you can’t afford to buy a house in the village, you can find villagers who, for a reasonable fee, will allow you to live in their house for a while. It is also necessary to take care of the place where the medicinal collection will be stored, for example, a barn or part of the veranda. This will not be easy to do, especially in remote villages, where any passive income and even small cash are welcome. The best option for a business would be to equip an abandoned house as a transshipment base for herbs. There are also plenty of them in remote villages and villages. You can organize a kind of medicinal mini-factory in it.

Knowledge

To make money from medicinal plants, you definitely need minimal knowledge of what herbs look like and when to collect them. It is also necessary to know which plants have medicinal properties and which body systems they affect. To do this, it is better to study some scientific works on botany or gain knowledge from local residents in villages, if, of course, they are carriers of such information. Ideally, it is best to take part in collecting plants yourself or attract specialists to develop this business.

By the way, if you want to open a business collecting medicinal plants and subsequently register an individual entrepreneur, it will be important to know that this craft has been assigned the OKVED code 02.30.

List of plants

You should not look for exotic plants and break the law by collecting them in protected areas. An ordinary forest and even a forest belt is a treasure trove of nature. Many medicinal plants grow there, such as:

• St. John's wort is an excellent sedative and an effective antidepressant;
• Wild mint - has a calming effect on the nervous system, is used in the production of cosmetics, has a sharp cooling smell, which appears when the leaves are rubbed;
• Coltsfoot - allows you to effectively fight cough, helps with whooping cough;
• Licorice is a powerful remedy for stimulating mucus production during colds;
• Sea buckthorn - oil from the berries of this plant helps heal wounds and is also used in the treatment of ulcers. It's important to know when to pick the bright yellow berries;
• Sage – helps in the treatment of ulcers, has a diuretic effect;
• Wild rose hips are a source of vitamin C. Its medicinal and preventive effect can hardly be overestimated. This is an excellent remedy for combating exhaustion and anemia;
• Linden blossom - prevention of kidney diseases and nervous system disorders; it is also important to know when to collect;
• Lingonberry is an excellent disinfectant and diuretic;
• Raspberries are the most expensive of all the above plants and are used to treat colds and infectious diseases. Both fruits and leaves can be collected.

Plantain also has medicinal properties. It stops bleeding perfectly, but it can be considered more of a field remedy. It does not retain its properties for long after failure. Corn silk also has a medicinal effect - these are strings located under the leaves around the fruit. This list of herbs alone is enough to set up your business. In the future, you can expand it by studying new types of plants and organizing their collection.

We draw your attention to the fact that you need to take care of the packaging of products for sale. We recommend using environmentally friendly paper bags, because... In polyethylene, herbs may lose their properties.

Search for buyers

As you can see, mastering the medicinal herbal business is not a problem. Selling medicinal herbs will cause more worries. After all, in order to make money, they need to be sold. This is where the Internet comes to the rescue. You can create your own resource offering to buy gifts of nature. The main factor here is website promotion to attract visitors who are potential clients and, very well, if they are regular ones. This is an effective and simple sales scheme that does not require significant financial investments. You can also find specialized third-party resources and offer your services as a supplier of medicinal herbs.

You might be interested in: Breeding purebred cats is a profitable business idea!

An example of a ready-made online store through which you can sell:

We draw your attention to the fact that on the websites you can immediately study the prices that you should focus on when selling your own medicinal mixture!

How to quickly expand your business

If you collect herbs and plants alone, you won’t be able to earn much. The maximum is 90,000 rubles, which is expensive every day, since some types of natural medicines quickly fade, so it is important to collect as many useful herbs as possible. This also makes it necessary to know which plants bloom or lose their medicinal properties when.

To optimize the process and earn more, you should involve local residents in the collection. Their knowledge of the area, and therefore the accumulation of medicinal herbs, will be a good help. For a relatively small fee, they will help you collect an impressive amount of useful plants. Here you can organize packaging of the resulting material after drying. Equipment for this will require no more than 30,000 rubles.

This option for earning money has a huge advantage - the medicinal collection can be stored for quite a long time and does not require urgent sale. That, in fact, is all I wanted to tell you about the collection of medicinal herbs as a business. Finally, we recommend watching a useful video

With the development of information technology, traditional medicine recipes have become available to people, so recently it has become popular to treat ailments not with medications, but with goods, tinctures and lotions. Therefore, enterprising people began to develop a business based on medicinal herbs, because people need somewhere to get raw materials for recipes.

Our business assessment:

Starting investments – from 50,000 rubles.

Market saturation is low.

The difficulty of starting a business is 6/10.

Advantages and disadvantages of business

The attractiveness of such an activity is as follows:

• market saturation is low because there are countless types of herbs, and entrepreneurs cannot satisfy all customer needs;
• profit can be made even without investments (if you collect on your own);
• high profitability;
• This is a pretty exciting business that can develop into a hobby.

Collecting medicinal herbs as a business has only one negative feature. The fact is that raw materials can only be procured in certain seasons (late spring, summer, early autumn), but sales take place all year round. During the winter months, entrepreneurs sometimes suffer losses due to the fact that they simply run out of products to sell.

Use of medicinal herbs

Medicinal plants are almost never sold openly. Usually these are small boxes with enclosed bags containing 200-500 g of one or another dried herb. People use them for brewing, to use the resulting decoction to wash wounds, make lotions and compresses, rinse hair, etc. Also, many people drink herbal infusions for weight loss or as an aid for certain ailments. In a word, the scope of application of medicinal herbs is very wide, so there is no fear that the product will not be in demand.

Types of herbal business

Depending on the stages of preparing medicinal herbs, there are several options for what you can do:

1. Growing.
2. Collection.
3. Drying.
4. Recycling.
5. Package.
6. Implementation.

We grow our own herbs

Growing medicinal herbs as a business is relevant for any person who wants to get a unique product. After all, not all types of herbs that the Russian consumer would like to see on the shelves grow in our regions. And sometimes it is much cheaper to plant and obtain this or that plant yourself than to go far away to get it.

But you can work not only with rare, but also with popular plants. Industrial cultivation of medicinal herbs on your own land allows you to obtain a high-quality harvest that compares favorably with wild crops.

The advantages are mainly two:

• convenient to assemble;
• knowledge of soil characteristics allows us to predict the quality and quantity of future plants.

Your own mini-farm for growing medicinal herbs involves a small plot of land (from 10 acres) and a well-ventilated room nearby for storing seeds and harvest. Among the auxiliary items you will need the usual watering cans, hoes and shovels. If you decide to expand your business, not only growing and collecting plants, but also producing oil from them, for example, then you will also need special equipment.

Collection of medicinal herbs

Passionate people who know the nuances of collecting (times for collecting medicinal herbs and plants, their types, environmentally friendly places, etc.) can easily make a business out of it. You can collect herbs in forest belts and meadow areas that do not belong to any farm or cooperative. A permit to collect medicinal herbs is not usually required. It is only needed if you are harvesting parts of woody plants (bark and buds).

There are some rules for collecting medicinal herbs:

• some of the thickets must be left untouched;
• when collecting, be sure to leave 2-3 plants per square meter of land;
• After collecting roots and rhizomes, the area should be leveled.

Drying and processing

Machine for threshing and crushing herbs Rebler LG 201

Procuring medicinal herbs is no less responsible than growing or collecting them. Harvesting refers to the drying of plants and their further processing to give them some kind of marketable appearance.

It could be:

• grinding using a cutting machine;
• packaging in boxes or other packaging;
• preparation of mixed mixtures (for cosmetic procedures, for oral administration, etc.);
• making sachets for various purposes (against moths, to improve sleep, to scent clothes);
• production of bath brooms;
• preparation of decoctions and infusions.

Implementation

Selling medicinal herbs is the final stage. You can implement them:

• to pharmacies and herbal shops;
• pharmaceutical industry enterprises;
• to the consumer through advertisements in newspapers and on specialized websites.

Another option: open your own store. In this case, it will be possible not to engage in gathering, but to open a point for receiving medicinal herbs from the population. But trade in medicinal plants requires compliance with certain requirements.

Licensing

The first thing an entrepreneur who decides to open a medicinal herbal store will need to do is obtain a license. Licensing is carried out by the regional executive authority upon presentation of a package of documents:

• a statement indicating the legal organizational form of the future enterprise, current account and legal address;
• a copy of the constituent agreement (certified by a notary);
• tax registration certificate;
• confirmation of registration in the state register.

To open an online store of medicinal herbs, you also need a license, because any buyer has the right to demand it. Registration of the document costs about 10 thousand rubles. and is done within a few weeks. During this time, you will be able to think through your store strategy, hire salespeople, find additional suppliers, etc.

Features of purchasing herbs from the population

Finding a supplier of medicinal herbs is not an easy task because all large growing and harvesting companies already have certain distribution channels. You can try to cooperate with them or organize the reception of medicinal herbs from the population. This should be done wisely, assessing the quality of products not by eye, but professionally.

That is, tests should be carried out:

• identifying the level of plant pest infestation;
• authenticity test, ash content, humidity level, presence of impurities;
• level of microbiological purity.

All data is recorded in analytical passports, then a protocol is drawn up and a quality log is filled out.

The purchase of medicinal herbs from the population is carried out in accordance with all the rules of purchase and sale, with the issuance of a cash order and the preparation of a report from the financially responsible person.

Wholesale purchase of herbs online

The business of taking medicinal herbs is also developing on the World Wide Web. Online stores are a kind of intermediaries between large purchasing companies and individuals who sell medicinal herbs for sale. Therefore, if you are not interested in small volumes, but in purchasing medicinal herbs in bulk, then you can look for suppliers on the Internet.

On such sites you can find a variety of plants with descriptions of their healing properties. Moreover, this can be either packaging of individual types or ready-made collections. In the second case, the product must also contain information about the percentage of each component in the set. By buying medicinal herbs in bulk, you can package them, make sachets or aromatic soaps, and then sell them and make a profit.

The most popular herbs and their cost

The price of taking medicinal herbs should be less than the price at which you are going to sell the products. Therefore, before making purchases, monitor the market for medicinal plants and compare prices.

Among the herbs that have the most popular scope of application and high demand are:

• elecampane root (from 70 rub./kg);
• chamomile flowers (from 140 rub./kg);
• Salvia officinalis (from 145 rub./kg);
• lemon balm (from 200 rub./kg);
• valerian root (from 430 rub./kg);
• linden flowers (from 640 rub./kg).

As for delivery, you can most often receive medicinal herbs by mail. The supplier sends the parcel with cash on delivery, and the buyer pays its cost at the post office. Another option: using the services of logistics companies. Sometimes this can be much faster and more profitable.

Initial Investment

Let’s not forget to talk about the main thing: how much money is needed to organize such a business? It all depends on the type of activity you choose and its scale. The profit will depend on the amount of investment. Those. if you collect herbs alone and then hand them over, then there will be no investment (except for expenses on transport to the forest or meadow), but also a minimum of income. Hiring people to harvest and then package the plants is a different investment, but also a bigger return.

When doing business with medicinal plants, willy-nilly you have to read about them, find out their properties, characteristics of origin, etc. As a result, many entrepreneurs become real experts in this field. And who knows, maybe your herbal pharmacy will bring not only profit, but also moral satisfaction.

Types and uses of medicinal herbs

Herbs that contain at least one substance with a healing effect are considered medicinal. They are usually used in addition to the main treatment or as a prophylaxis for various diseases. The Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation contains about 160 names of medicinal herbs approved for use. Beneficial substances can be located in different parts of plants: in grass (chamomile, string, snakehead, fumes), in seeds, fruits (coriander, anise, datura, flax, poppy, plantain), in flowers (calendula officinalis, blue cornflower ), in the bark, roots, buds.

They produce medicines for internal and external use. The first group includes such forms of use as infusion, decoction, aqueous-alcoholic, oil extracts (tincture, extracts). In the second - herbal bath, wrap, lotion, compress. Herbal infusions that combine plants with similar properties are also popular. Among them there are anti-asthmatic, diuretic, thoracic, choleretic, carminative, sedative, gastric astringents, bitters, diaphoretics, gargles, multivitamins and many other preparations.

The herbal processing business is highly profitable due to low equipment costs and constant demand for this type of product. The popularity of medicinal herbs is dictated by their low price, safety, possibility of long-term use and combination with other dosage forms.

Production technology

In the full production cycle of medicinal preparations, the following stages can be distinguished: growing raw materials, assembly, drying, processing and packaging.

For cultivation, you can organize a plantation, which will require the purchase of land, equipment, seeds and fertilizers. Such production has many advantages: you can regulate the volumes and types of plants, raw materials will always be available. But for a beginner, it would be better to purchase raw materials from collectors and subject them to further processing, since cultivation requires high costs and knowledge of complex plant assembly technology. When purchasing raw materials, you need to be careful and carefully check the herbs you buy. It is better, of course, to control the drying process of raw materials, because the quality of the future product depends on it. GOST 24027.2-80 contains methods for determining the quality of plant raw materials. There are also special institutions involved in the study of medicinal raw materials: State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision, the Center for Metrology and Standardization, or laboratories at pharmaceutical factories.

An incomplete cycle of herbal processing looks like this. The raw materials are sorted and cleaned of foreign impurities and rotten parts, after which they are sent for drying. Drying is a method of preserving plants. With the natural method, plants are placed in the shade, in a ventilated area. This way, the active substances and color are preserved as much as possible. When machine drying, choose a mode according to the composition of the plants: herbs with essential oils are dried at a temperature of 25-30°C, laid out in a thick layer, alkaloid- and glycoside-containing ones - 50-60°C, vitamins - quickly at a temperature of 80-100°C, gradually reducing it to 40°C. Signs of the end of drying: for roots, rhizomes - a break with a characteristic crack; for leaves and grass - rub with fingers; for the veins of leaves and grass stems - they break; for flowers – dry to the touch. Juicy dried fruits should not stick together into a lump when squeezed in your hand.

Table. Yield of some types of medicinal raw materials after drying (per 100 kg of freshly harvested plants)

• drying machine (200-700 thousand rubles)

• chopper (170-270 thousand rubles);

• vibrating screens (9-30 thousand rubles/piece);

• mixer (about 160 thousand rubles);

• filling and packaging machine (from 250 thousand to 1 million rubles, depending on productivity);

• birch (leaf) – 70 rub/kg

• birch (buds) – 380 rub/kg

• valerian – 300 rub/kg

• chamomile (flowers) – 176 RUR/kg

• motherwort – 70 rub/kg

• plantain – 115 rub/kg

• thyme – 130 rub/kg

• licorice (root) – 70 rub/kg

• thermopsis – 190 rub/kg

• burdock – 130-150 rub/kg

• Eleutherococcus (root) – 140 rub/kg

• birch (leaf) – 14 rubles.

• birch (buds) – 60 rub.

• chamomile (flowers) – 26 rub.

• valerian – 30 rub.

• motherwort – 15 rubles.

• plantain – 20 rub.

• licorice (root) – 14 rub.

• thyme – 16 rub.

• burdock – 16 rub.

• Eleutherococcus (root) – 18 rubles.

• List of medical products that the applicant is ready to produce.

• Constituent documents:

• charter;

• memorandum of association;

• protocol, regulations, decision on the creation of an organization, on the appointment of a director.

• Registration documents:

• Certificate of state registration as a legal entity;

• Certificate of registration with the tax authority;

• Certificate of registration of changes in case of changes.

• Statistics codes (letter from Goskomstat);

• Extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities;

• Documents confirming the consent of local governments to locate the production of medical oxygen in the relevant territory.

• Sanitary and epidemiological conclusion on compliance, on the compliance of the production of medicines (medical oxygen) with the requirements of sanitary rules.

• Documents confirming that the applicant has buildings, premises and equipment necessary for carrying out the licensed activity that he owns by right of ownership or on another legal basis.

• Documents confirming the qualifications of specialists that meet the licensing requirements;

• Diploma of higher or secondary specialized education (chemical technology, biotechnology, pharmaceutical);

• Certificate of advanced training

• A document confirming at least 3 years of work experience in the specialty.

• Information about the enterprise (master file), indicating that the license applicant has the ability to fulfill the license requirements and conditions.

• Specification – requirements for the quality of materials and products used in production (raw materials, packaging).

• Instructions, methods, procedures - instructions for performing certain types of operations.

• Batch protocol – reflects the production process of each batch of products.

Note.

The weight loss after drying the raw material is 80% for leaves and berries, 75% for flowers, 70% for grass, 65% for fruits, roots and rhizomes, 60% for buds, and 40% for bark. The yield of dry raw materials from freshly harvested plants, depending on the collection area, may differ slightly from the data given.

Dried plants are crushed using cutting machines. The degree of grinding is regulated by a special sieve and is determined by the purpose of the plants: herbs for baths and poultices are cut into pieces no larger than 2 mm, and herbs and teas for internal use are crushed depending on the part of the plant (leaves, flowers and grass are crushed to particles no larger than 5 mm , stems, bark, rhizomes and roots - no more than 3 mm, fruits and seeds - no more than 0.5 mm). Some parts of plants bypass this stage of processing (flowers, small inflorescences, some types of seeds and berries).

Next, the herbs go into the mixer, where the collections are prepared. Salt components and essential oils in an alcohol solution (1:10) are added to the mixed mass by spraying, then dried at a temperature not exceeding 60 degrees.

Healing infusions of 50, 100, 150 and 200 grams are packaged in cardboard boxes lined with parchment paper or after placing them in a double paper bag. Unpackaged raw materials are stored in a dry, ventilated area with a humidity of no more than 50%, in tightly closed packaging. The packaging used is bags, paper and cloth bags, boxes, boxes lined with clean white paper, and cans. Packaged herbs are stored in racks or cabinets. The shelf life of flowers, leaves and grass does not exceed 1-2 years, fruits - 2 years, and rhizomes, roots and bark - 2-3 years.

In addition to the usual cutting and mixing, there are other ways to process plant materials: obtaining dry extracts and producing aromatic oils. These types of production require expensive equipment, but may take place in the future, as they bring high income.

Purchase of raw materials and equipment

To produce medicinal herbs, you will need to purchase the following equipment:

The productivity of such a line is about 14 thousand packages of 100 grams per day.

Wholesale prices for dried raw materials:

The price of wholesale sales of goods depends on the volume of the pack; usually they sell packs of 50, 100 grams. The markup in such cases is more than 50% (prices per 50 grams).

Products sold in filter bags have an even higher markup. For example, a 30 gram pack of valerian costs 21 rubles (30 grams of monoherb costs 18 rubles).

Premises and staff

The premises in which drug collections are made must include a production area, a formulation and quality control laboratory, a storage area and auxiliary areas. The total area of ​​the building is about 200-300 sq. m. meters.

For personnel, you will need to hire equipment operators and qualified workers with pharmaceutical, chemical, chemical-technological, biological or biotechnological education. Each employee must follow the rules of hygiene at the enterprise: undergo a medical examination, wear special clothing, do not smoke, do not eat or drink in industrial and warehouse areas, do not contact open products without gloves, and wash hands properly.

Documentation

According to the regulation of July 6, 2012, the production of medicinal products obtained from plant materials is subject to licensing. It is necessary to undergo laboratory accreditation, production certification, approve the production technology in the Pharmaceutical Committee, obtain permission from the SES and firefighters.

To obtain a license, the following documents are required:

You should also register product prices with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economy. The license is issued for a year.

The list of documents establishing the technological process includes:

It may take about 150 thousand rubles to complete all the documentation.

Investment and ROI

The initial investment required to open a business for the production of medicinal herbs, taking into account the rental of premises, registration, salaries, purchase of new equipment and raw materials for the production of 7 thousand packages per day, will amount to about 4.5-5 million rubles. With active sales, the business will pay for itself in six months.

Marketing

For the Russian population, herbal treatment is an ineradicable tradition, so there is no need to advertise the herbs themselves. But you still have to spend money on “promotion” of the brand and time to find a buyer. When selling herbs and herbal infusions, it is worth considering the popularity of a particular type of product. The greatest demand is for chamomile, senna, sage, kidney tea, bearberry, valerian, linden and oak bark, as well as chest, urological, sedative, choleretic and antihemorrhoidal preparations. A positive for sales will be the production of medicinal herbs in convenient and functional packaging: the release of herbs in filter bags, in small packages.

Cherukhina Kristina

Growing medicinal plants as a business is common in rural areas with good ecology, far from highways, cities and hazardous industries. In Russia, many people resort to traditional medicine, using herbal decoctions, tinctures, and rubs instead of or in combination with tablets. Various parts of natural raw materials are processed by the pharmacological, cosmetology, perfume and food industries.

The list of medicinal plants is huge; in addition to the well-known chamomile and calendula, there are thousands of medicinal herbs and shrubs. A novice entrepreneur can choose the most suitable type, taking into account the characteristics of agro-climatic conditions. To organize a profitable business, you need a large plot of land, since dried raw materials weigh little, but you need a lot of it. Before embarking on a project to grow medicinal plants, you need to study the market, assess the risks, and calculate the amount of investment and future profits.

Types of medicinal raw materials

Plants that contain at least 1 beneficial component are considered medicinal. The healing component is concentrated in flowers, leaves, roots, fruits, and buds. When growing for sale, you need to know which part of the plant is valuable. The branch of science that studies the properties of medicinal plants is called “pharmacognosy”.

The largest classification of medicinal raw materials:

1. For medical purposes. The category is regulated by the Russian Ministry of Health through inclusion in the state register of medicines.
2. Pharmacological use. Plants included in this category are described in the Pharmacopoeia - a collection of articles, standards and regulations.
3. Traditional methods of application. The therapeutic effectiveness of the subgroup has not been proven by official methods. This does not prevent people from actively collecting plants and using them in ancient recipes.

On Russian territory, chamomile, valerian, marshmallow, licorice, calendula, sage, St. John's wort, coltsfoot, raspberry, currant, oregano, elecampane, yarrow, mint, lemon balm, thyme, wormwood, lavender, rose hips, hawthorn, viburnum, linden, birch, oak, motherwort, plantain, burdock.

Chamomile and calendula have a calming, anti-inflammatory, analgesic effect. Coltsfoot is used for respiratory diseases, high blood pressure, and nephritis. Licorice is known for its antitumor properties and high glyceric acid content.

Rosemary is used as a seasoning for food, essential oils tone, disinfect and relieve tension. Calamus contains alkaloids, starches, vitamins, volatile oils, which improve appetite, digestion of food, restore vision, and strengthen blood vessels. This is not a complete list of what medicinal plants are needed for and how they are used.

Production technology

The full cycle of business on medicinal plants includes the following stages:

• cultivation;
• collection;
• drying;
• treatment;
• packaging.

Medicinal herbs are generally undemanding to soils and are more likely to be weeds than cultivated plants. Perennials are planted, among other things, to enrich land plots depleted by agriculture. The main rule is that for planting, choose types of vegetation that are typical in a particular area, which do not need to create special conditions for growth.

If you plan to grow an assortment of herbs, then it is better to group the raw materials in such a way that the costs of organizing a business are not too high. For example, the root is taken from licorice, marshmallow, valerian; flowers - chamomile, dandelion, calendula.

Growing technology can be considered on one specific plant, for example, licorice. The international name is licorice or licorice root. The crop is cultivated mainly in the south, where licorice receives a lot of sunlight. Areas with insufficient moisture and low nutrients in the soil are also suitable for cultivation.

Before planting, the plantation is prepared - the soil is dug up and harrowed, weeds are cleared, and fertilizers are applied:

1. Superphosphates.
2. Potassium salt.
3. Ammonium nitrate.

For planting, purchase licorice seeds or roots; to increase the percentage of germination, the seeds are scalded with boiling water. Sowing work begins in April-May using the square-cluster method. Seed material is placed in the ground to a depth of 10-15 mm, 10-20 pieces per cell of 0.5x0.5 meters. Cuttings for propagation are selected 5-10 years of age in the fall after harvesting the field. Trim so that 3-4 eyes remain and plant at a depth of 15 cm.

The main disadvantage of licorice is its slow ripening. The first harvest is harvested after 5-6 years with the seed method or after 3-4 years with vegetative propagation. Subsequently, the plants grow independently, and every September the roots are dug up, leaving some in the ground for reproduction. The average yield of licorice is from 200 grams to 1 kg of dried raw materials per 1 square meter plot. m.

For further processing, the roots are washed, the best specimens are selected, and the defective and damaged parts are thrown away. If weather conditions permit, the raw materials are laid out in the sun, or in well-ventilated indoor and outdoor areas. Along with the natural drying method, technological reduction of humidity is used in special units at a temperature of 60°C. During processing, roots lose up to 65% of their weight.

Dry raw materials are crushed in crushers. According to GOST, the particle size should not exceed 3 mm. If the company is engaged in the preparation of herbal infusions, licorice roots are mixed with other components.

At the last stage, the finished material is packaged in bags (paper) and packaged in packs of 50, 100, 150, 200 grams for sale in the retail network. For dispensing in bulk quantities, bags, boxes and tanks are used. If the storage rules are followed, licorice can be stored for up to 10 years without losing its healing properties.

The production technology of other medicinal plants may differ at all stages, from growing conditions to the type of finished product. Squeezes and aromatic compositions are made from essential oil varieties, and infusions, extracts, and decoctions are made from some types of herbs.

Equipment

The set of necessary tools and equipment for growing medicinal plants depends on the type of raw materials and the production cycle. When harvesting herbs at the primary stage, without drying and further processing, standard agricultural equipment is sufficient:

• cultivator;
• shovels;
• braids;
• choppers;
• rake;
• buckets;
• bags;
• hoses.

Further work will require washing, drying units, sheds, crushers, mixers, and a packaging line. If you plan to build a business on essential oil crops, then specialized equipment is needed to obtain high-quality extracts.

Year-round cultivation of plants is possible in greenhouses. To do this, you can choose any species, even atypical for a given area, which can be cost-effectively cultivated in small areas.

Staff

An entrepreneur who does not have sufficient knowledge in the field of medicinal plants will need specialist advice. It makes sense to hire a professional biologist or pharmacist who can set up production.

In addition, you need:

1. Operators of technological equipment.
2. Field workers.
3. Storekeeper.
4. Purchasing and Sales Manager.
5. Accountant.

The number of employees and the specific list of specialties depends on the scale and focus of the business.

Enterprise registration

To sell medicinal plants, a business is registered in the form of an individual entrepreneur or a limited liability company. The production of drugs from herbal ingredients in Russia is subject to licensing. Therefore, organizing a full technological cycle with the production of finished products takes a lot of time and will cost investors several thousand rubles.

Documentation package for obtaining permission:

• registration certificate;
• certificate of registration with the Federal Tax Service;
• entry sheet from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities/Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs;
• production permit issued by the local administration;
• conclusion of the SES;
• confirmation of the right to use the land plot (ownership or lease);
• list of available household equipment;
• list of employees with documents confirming their qualifications;
• production technology with a detailed description of operations;
• certificates of quality of materials and raw materials used in the manufacturing process;
• certificate for a batch of products.

The licensing process involves government licensing authorities, Rospotrebnadzor, SES, the Ministry of Health, and expert organizations.

Sales

One of the advantages of doing business with medicinal plants is the ability to sell raw materials in any form: raw immediately after harvest, dried, processed and packaged.

Main sales channels:

1. Wholesale companies.
2. Pharmaceutical factories.
3. Pharmacies.
4. Cosmetology production.
5. Online stores.

Growing medicinal plants is a seasonal business. The procurement of raw materials lasts for several spring and summer months, the rest of the time is allocated for processing and sales.

If you have correctly executed documents for products and quality certificates, problems with the sale of popular medicinal herbs do not arise. The demand for raw materials and finished drugs is consistently high. If you study the market, prices in advance and identify an empty niche, you can earn large sums in a short period of time.

Among the potential consumers of medicinal plants are distilleries, which, in the fight for buyers, produce products containing phytocomponents - birch buds, cranberries, milk thistle, hot pepper. When concluding an agreement for the supply of raw materials with a similar enterprise, the businessman ensures sales on an ongoing basis.

Video: growing medicinal plants as a business.

Profitability

When the concept of a business idea has been chosen, the main stages of the project have been determined, it is necessary to calculate the amount of investment and plan future income. According to reviews from existing entrepreneurs, the economic efficiency of growing medicinal plants reaches 150%.

To create a herbal plantation with subsequent drying and packaging of herbs and teas, you will need to invest the following amount:

During the year, the company needs to regularly pay salaries to employees, taxes and utility bills; these are the main expenses of the business - approximately 3.5 million rubles. The productivity of the packaging line is 1,000 packs of medicinal herbs per shift.

If there is established sales and 100% sales of manufactured products, the annual income is:

Revenue covers initial investments and ongoing costs throughout the technological cycle. The remainder is spent on preparing for the new sowing season, caring for and harvesting the next harvest. Net profit is used for business development - increasing the area of ​​plantations, updating the range, purchasing equipment.

Multimillion-dollar investments are needed to grow medicinal plants on an industrial scale and produce drugs that require licensing. If you cultivate medicinal herbs on a small plot and sell the raw materials to processing factories, then the costs will be minimal. But such a business will not bring big profits.

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