The increasing population of Portuguese elderly and retired northern Europeans prefer natural foods.
The book 'Plantas para Curar e Comer’ (Plants for Healing and Eating,) has plenty of tips for this group of two million people, focusing on quality rather than price.
Hippocrates said in around 300BC, "Let food be your medicine and your medicine your food."
We have exceptional conditions in Portugal to produce aromatic and medicinal herbs that abound in our beautiful countryside.
Some people need to lose weight and others just love to walk in the countryside but either way, why not join business with pleasure and collect, process and sell plants that will reduce the risk of disease?
Here's just a sample of this information in the book...
Chard, acelga marítima or sea beet: in the spring, on the coast, on sunny days after rainfall they show large bright leaves. In France they are popular in soufflés. You can export it fresh to gourmet stores run by Portuguese descendants, or freeze the soufflé. It is rich in calcium, potassium and phosphorus and vitamins B1, B2 and C.
It is good for cystitis, burns and skin diseases.
Pennywort, conchelo: Perennial herb in escarpments and on ancient walls, a complement to lettuce in salads. It heals, is diuretic and antiseptic. Sell it to homeopathic laboratories in French-speaking Switzerland and Belgium.
Cactus Pear, figo-da-índia: if you have some capital, invest in the industrialisation of the fruit, extracting the natural dye for cosmetics. Or grind the seeds to make a flour to mix with other cereals in multigrain bread which is preferred by the elderly.
With no capital you could sell homemade jam, although there is a competitor in the Alentejo.
Figs are rich in calcium, magnesium and vitamin C and are used in the prevention of asthma, prostate and liver diseases.
Nettle, urtiga: For thousands of years nettle leaves have been used for soups and broths.
Diabetics make tea with 60g of green leaf to a litre of water. The dried leaves can be exported. They are also used for cosmetics, for example in the treatment of hair-loss. Nettles contain carotene, silicon and vitamins B2, B6 and C.
Not many people know that rubbing nettle-leaves in the lower abdomen stimulates the sexual functions of the elderly. There are a million men in this age range, a good market!
If you have capital, you could sell this on the TV and make a huge profit. Start by advertising testimony from foreign clients.
