NZ Lavender

NZLavender is New Zealand’s largest commercial lavender farm, producing top quality lavender essential oil, which is distributed around the world to over 18 countries. World production of pure lavender oil is relatively small but is in high demand from perfumery, skincare and aromatherapy manufacturers. The oil is used for shampoo, facial creams, toothpaste, and fragrances. Lavender oil is also used for sleep support, baby care and stress management.

Dr Philip Simms is a retired vet and Owen Dexter a retired dairy farmer. Between them they have developed their 20ha (50 acre) property to create an award winning lavender oil business. They spent two years researching and traveling to oil-producing operations in Europe and Australia. NZ Crop and Food also provided advice in the early days of setting up the operation. After first planting on bare land in 2004, the first crop was harvested in 2006. The lavender variety is Lavandula angustifolia “Avice Hill”. It was named after Avice Hill (now deceased) who was Head Botanist at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. It was selected by Philip and Owen for its superior aroma, unique oil properties, low allergen content and capacity for oil production.

Owen has a background as a dairy and arable farmer with 35 years experience; this has been fully utilised in the growing, frost control, harvesting and pruning of the lavender.   While having qualified as a vet, Philip is now a certified LPG handler and runs the distillery and boiler.

Canterbury is ideally suited for lavender growing, with its low rainfall and free-draining soils.

There are 110,000 plants grown over 30 acres (13 ha) at NZLavender, producing nearly 100 tonnes of flowers, from which 1 tonne of oil is extracted each year.

The plants begin to shoot in mid September and by the beginning of January they are ready for harvest.

There are no herbicides used on the lavender. Weeding is done by mechanical cultivation between the rows, or hand-weeding within the rows (using screwdrivers!)

Irrigation is drip-fed. Although lavender plants require minimal water, irrigation ensures a longer stem, which enables a cleaner harvest of flower heads while minimizing leaf and stalk material. NZLavender has the rights to take water from the aquifer through an agreement with ECan. All fertilisers are applied as foliar feed, which keeps environmental impact to a minimum. A liquid seaweed fertiliser (only) is applied as required.

Insect pests are not an issue for the operation. Philip says the annual harvest tends to take care of any insect pests (such as spittle bug) that might be taking up residence otherwise.

A critical growth period is from October to mid-December when frosts can burn off new flower buds and jeopardise the timing and quality of harvest. To prevent this, sensors are placed among the plant rows, and these are monitored by Harvest Electronics in Masterton. If a frost threatens, an alert text is sent to their mobile phones. Owen and Philip have imported a Belgian frost-fighting machine, which uses 4 large LPG cylinders to heat the field. On receiving a text, Owen drives the frost machine around a pre-described route, blowing warm air across the plants.

Each year in early December, as the flowers are starting to open, 70 beehives are set up around the property by local beekeeper, Rodney Dreaver (“Bee my Honey”). The pollination of the lavender flowers by the bees, increases oil production by 10 to 20%. In return, the beekeeper takes up to 2 tonnes of lavender honey away during the season, which has been sold all around the world.

Harvest takes place over two weeks in January. Owen and Philip have built their distillery, using bespoke designs created by the late Tim Denny, owner of Bridestowe Lavender Farm in Tasmania (a long-time lavender grower and oil producer with an international reputation for technical and botanical research). Owen and Philip imported their harvester from France.

Unlike many labour-intensive operations in Europe, at NZLavender the cut flowers are fed directly into a still pot that is attached to the tractor. The pots have been specifically designed for their system. The still pot can hold ¾ tonnes of flowers and can be filled from 1-2 rows of plants in 5 – 10 minutes.

Once filled, the pot is taken to the distillery and exchanged for an empty pot, which is taken out to the field for loading up once more.

In the distillery, the full pot is loaded by forklift onto the still base. Utilising the large reservoir of steam in the boiler, they are able to heat the 3/4 tonne of lavender to 100‘C in under 5 minutes; the flowers are then steamed distilled for 20 minutes producing up to 10 litres of oil. Rapid heat-up and extraction of oil is necessary to prevent denaturing of the oil (and a reduction in quality). The steam and oil is then cooled in a condenser and the liquid passes into a separator, which allows the oil to collect on the surface of the water. The oil is then decanted into steel drums and stored under an inert gas at 4’C in their coolstore. This prevents air coming into contact with the oil, which can cause oxidation and subsequent deterioration of quality and an increase in allergenic potential (linalool is oxidised to hydroperoxide, which is 100 times more allergenic than linalool).

The lavender water (“lavender hydrosol”, “lavender aqueous distillate”) is pumped into a larger holding tank (15,000 litres) before being packaged in 1000 litre IBC’s and shipped to China.

The oil is left to mature (6 months) before bottling and sending to various retail distributers in New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan and Taiwan and manufacturers world-wide. The oil is tested by gas chromatography (in Australia) and has proven to be consistent in its quality year-on-year.

NZLavender is currently setting up a bottling plant on site, which will enable added value for the business.