Strong organic credentials are helping a South East England based lavender grower to break into the valuable China market, says Michael Wale.
An organic lavender farmer, who farms a mere 13 miles from the centre of London, is working with Chinese contacts to export his products to China.
Brendan Maye, originally from Tralee in the Irish Republic, became an organic farmer by a somewhat circuitous route. With a background in the commercial side of the fragrance industry, he rose through the ranks to become managing director of the business that controlled the iconic British fragrance company Yardley – best known for their products with a lavender background.
Gradually, Yardley began to lose its market dominance, and in a bid to restore it Maye tried to persuade Yardley’s parent company to buy a lavender farm and bring its products closer to lavender production itself. It would also, he suggested, provide the brand with a valuable point of difference and unique focus. But the company could not be persuaded, reluctant to get into the business of farming.
Maye moved over to become MD at the fine fragrance division of Proctor & Gamble, which subsequently sold Yardley. By then, however, he had already set up a lavender farm on 13 acre field near Epsom, in South East England, naming it Mayfield Lavender. With the appeal of constant travelling and endless business meetings waning, he took the decision to farm it full time, with his wife Lorna.
Having taken over the running of the now 25 acre farm from Lorna, he began to introduce changes. The first major innovation was to open up the farm to visitors. In a way, the idea presented itself – people from all over the world who’d heard about the magnificent display of lavender had begun turning up without invitation. Now, visitors are charged £2.50 to walk through the fields when they are in flower in mid-summer. A shop was introduced, selling a selection collection of products containing a lavender ingredients from the farm’s own crop, as well as a small café serving light lunches and snacks.
Photo opportunity
Other lavender farms which charge for visitors to walk their fields have found that social media, Instagram especially, has contributed amazingly to the rise of visitors who are always searching out new, colourful and unusual places to be photographed. Hitchin Lavender, also based just outside London in Hertfordshire, charge £6.50 per visitor, and reported that this summer on the three weekends at the height of the season through July into August, over 4,OOO visitors turned up each weekend.
Mayfield Lavender’s restricted car parking and facilities mean that the farm could not handle that number, nor would it really want to, being very much a family set up – and aiming to appeal to an organic audience.
But Brendan Maye is well aware that a lavender farmer needs to be very much more than just a farmer. From the start he wanted to create a distinctive organic brand for his products that would sell well at the farm shop but also win the attention of online shoppers.
It is this element that has led to links with china, with its lure of a massive fragrance industry. Lavender is one of the most sought out ingredients by Chinese fragrance manufacturers – and if it’s organic lavender, even better.
Maye explains: “ I’ve been to China several times since 2017. We’re working on developing a partnership over there. They need lavender oil. It all started with Chinese visitors coming over to see our fields, and our business. I was then invited back to China by people who wanted to work with me. They were very enthusiastic. You have to develop relationships in this business. Our Chinese partners are interested in selling a range of our products. It is a work in progress, still. But everything is going very well”.
As for lavender farming itself, having been on the other side of the business Maye recognises that he is very much “in the consumer business” – not just running a farm with one extra visitor revenue.
Point of difference
He adds : “You cannot just plant lavender and expect a golden egg to fall into your lap. It’s an intensive business. What I’m trying to do is push a strong brand. It has taken me 15 years to get to this position. An of course, the more people replicating what I do removes the uniqueness”. While Maye is aware of the threat to his business of ‘copy cat’ operations, he believes that his farm and his lavender’s organic credentials – and Soil Association certification – give him an important point of difference. And that’s also what is fuelling interest from China.
Although he has spent most of his working career as a business executive he believes farming was always in his blood, because of his upbringing in Tralee, in the South West of the Republic of Ireland. As he says: “ I was always surrounded by farms and farmers in my childhood. That was the way of life. So I’m quite used to it really”.
“Lavender’s recent fashionableness (all those Instagram influencers) has created an army of aspiring lavender farmers. Maye says he gets at least 12 calls a day ‘from people who say I want to be a lavender farmer’.”
Lavender’s recent fashionableness (all those Instagram influencers) has created an army of aspiring lavender farmers. Maye says he gets at least 12 calls a day “from people who say I want to be a lavender farmer”. He cautions them with advice that “it’s hard to grow lavender from seed.”
Maye denied that if Mayfield Lavender decided was going to be serious about lavender production, it needed a nursery. Maye explains : “ We propagate the lavender plants, and sell them through UK wholesalers. There are 200 different types of lavender. You have to make sure the soil is right, ensure there’s nothing that traps frost, and then in May do what you can’t to avoid bird damage. There’s a lot to learn. It’s a Mediterranean plant.”
For things to stack up commercially, says Maye, “you should be sure aim to be near to a distiller, who will produce your most valuable ingredient, lavender oil”. Meanwhile, back at Mayfield Lavender’s shop the most luxurious gift sets come in nearly £40, though single items start at £5, creating an affordable entry point.
The benefits of organic growing are also emphasised with on-farm information which explains how all the weeding is done by hand, and how butterflies, bumble bees, and honey bees are attracted by the farm’s organic lavender, while its fields have attracted pheasants and a family of kestrels for the past few years.