Kazakhstan herbs to be used in German balms

Bitter balm produced in Germany will contain Kazakhstan herbs, Express K reports.

A farmer from Akmola oblast Gabit Syzdykov has started supplying wormwood to a German company. He obtained a hay land lot that was earlier used for cultivation of these pharmacological herbs. The land was abandoned for a long time and the herb grew wild. Syzdykov told about his plans to clean up and cultivate the land to his friend living in Germany. The friend suggested to sell the wormwood to German company producing a bitter balm famous in Western Europe.

“In the beginning I decided that the game is not worth the candle as there would be too much mess with this herb: it had to be sorted out. However, our people managed everything quite quickly, the herbs were packed in paper bags and dispatched to Germany. Then I found out that the balm producers were very surprised that the herbs arrived there fresh, because their own wormwood dried out very quickly and loses its essential oils,” the farmer said.

Now the German company is offering Suzdukov to sign a contract for supplies of more wormwood. He did not take the final decision yet, as he planned to use the land for hay. 

Astana sommelier Vadim Ke is surprised with this position: “The wormwood from the Alps, normally from Italy or Switzerland, is used in Europe to produce absinthe, vermouth and balms. Farmers lobby is very strong there and getting to this market from outside is almost impossible. But I guess that this system has started collapsing during the crisis. And I can congratulate our farmers on that.”

Tengrinews.kz