Phl oregano wine to be showcased at annual Italian wine festival

MANILA, Philippines - Philippines folk medicine oregano, which has been made into a wine with a unique anti-oxidant, anti-microbial and nutrient components, may make it to an annual wine festival held in Turin, Italy.  

If plans materialize, the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) wine and spirit cluster (WSC) may send delegates with their special wine products to Turin.   

The WSC is a team which has been meeting for more than a year now to help boost the local wine industry.  

Turin is an Italian industrial-cultural city known for its royal palaces, auto factories, and famous wines like Barolo and Barbaresco.

The oregano wine will go as part of the Philippine showcase, according to Dr. Estela C. Tano, a WSC member.  

The oregano wine was developed by the Quezon Agricultural Experimental Station (QAES)-DA Region 4 through a  funding from the DA’s Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR). 

The oregano wine was recently exhibited in a trade fair in Thailand last May.

Together with other oregano product lines, oregano wine has already reached foreign countries through overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who brought the wine to the United States, Canada and the Middle East.  

The oregano wine is not only good for the heart like red wine, but also benefits people with ailments such as asthma, low immune system, prostate problems, poor blood circulation, insomnia, and UTI (urinary tract infection) among others.  

BAR director Nicomedes P. Eleazar said BAR funded by more than P4 million the development of several oregano products as part of the Indigenous Plants for Health and Wellness (IPHW) program.  

“We hardly had an R&D (research and development) program for phytochemical and anti-oxidant products in the past. That is despite our being blessed with so much and diverse flora. Our indigenous plant program will develop the country’s capability to produce health and wellness products like how Koreans marketed ginseng tea,” said Eleazar.  

The IPHW program also aims to increase the export of some herbs and spices, Eleazar said.  

The country’s total export of spices reached a peak of only $400,000 in a year over 2000-2006.

Eleazar stressed the need to lessen the import of spices which reached to $2.2 million in 2009.

Among the plants included in the IPHW program are moringa, saluyot, ulasiman bato, pili and cashew nuts, yerba buena, native onions and garlic, sesame, citronella, and tanglad (lemongrass).  

The oregano program yielded other value-added products – juice, tea, vinegar and antibacterial soap.  

The products fall under food supplements and cosmetics. These are certified safe following physico-chemical and microbiological and heavy metals analyses by Intertek laboratory, a government-recognized entity.  

The manufacturing facility in Barangay Tagbakin, Tiaong, Quezon of the Green Rescue Organic Association, Inc. (GRO), QAES’s partner, has a license to operate from Food and Drug Administration.  

Aside from the wine, oregano tea has great market prospects together with two other teas the group has come up with – a ginger multi-purpose tea and turmeric multi-purpose tea – all in handy tea bags of 2.2 grams.  

“The prospects of marketing tea products in the country is not that low now compared to before.  Filipinos, especially those who travel abroad and are now into health and wellness, are familiar with the benefits of drinking tea. Different local restaurants are now also offering tea,” said Tano.  

Oregano soap is another well-selling medicinal product.  

“It’s the best-selling among GRO’s soaps because it can remove body and foot odor after one or two baths.  It’s very effective in drying pimples and in alleviating skin asthma. It’s still cheap (at P70 per piece) as it’s organic, 100 percent hand-made,” said Tano.  

GRO has 11 dealers in Metro Manila, two in Laguna, 18 in Quezon, two in Batangas, one in Cavite and three in Rizal.  

Customers can buy from the Agribusiness Development Center of DA in Quezon City and Geoshop in Cubao Expo.

Soon, there will be distributors in Bulacan, Pampanga and Baguio City.  

Oregano is grown by four farmer-GRO members over around 10,000 square meters (sq.m.) in Mt. Banahaw in a chemical-free organic system. A separate 1,000 sq. m. organic farm is in Calauan, Laguna.  

However, QAES is also opening the planting of oregano to other farmers for as long as it is organically grown without chemical pesticides and fertilizers. 

Oregano producers should deliver the crops within a day to the processing laboratory to ensure freshness.  

“The farmers’ area need not be big because oregano is a very prolific plant. A 1,000 square meter area can yield as much as 1.5 tons in a year which will give a farmer a P15,000 gross income at a selling price of P10 per kilo,” said Tano.

QAES is trying to raise production in response to rising demand.  

“We have no doubt we have established a market segment for each of the oregano products.  We want to cater to more markets such as the major cities of the country,” she said.  

QAES occasionally encounters raw material supply problem due to unfavorable climatic conditions – long summer and heavy rains afterwards.

The BAR-QAES oregano program can be attractive to potential entrepreneurs.  

Investors must be willing to put up FDA-compliant facilities. They must also comply with the program’s product development standards so that the high quality of the products is maintained after technology transfer.  

A BAR feasibility study as of 2008 showed that an initial capital of P1 million for an oregano processing facility gives a 30-percent return on investment.  

The oregano processing facility can produce 1,358 bottles of 375 milliliter (ml) wine, 547 bottles of 750 ml vinegar, 1,358 bottles of 375 ml juice, and 4,400 boxes of tea at 14 bags per box.  

The wine is sold at P295 per bottle; the juice, P245 per bottle; vinegar, P80 per bottle; and tea, P150 per box.  

On the oregano plant production side, a 1,000 sq. m. lot can produce 15,760 kilos of fresh leaves a year. This generates a gross income of P156,760 kilos at P10 per kilo, while cost is P6.20 per kilo, according to the feasibility study.  

BAR and QAES are further developing oregano into other potential pharmaceutical products. These include cough syrup, cold rubs and cream.

Other possible cosmetic products are toothpaste, shampoo, facial, foot and body scrubs. It can also be developed as an industrial product like organic biofertilizer and biopesticide.  

Other food products from oregano are candies, jam and condiments.

It also aids in mens-truation. It has antiseptic, anti-viral, anti-parasitic, anti-oxidant, carminative (relieves flatulence) and diaphoretic (increases sweating) properties.

It cures dyspepsia (kabag), chronic and dry coughs, bronchitis, removes phlegm, alleviates rheumatism and chronic fatigue.  

It is a good source of vitamins B, C, calcium, and iron.  

For any questions, contact Dr. Estela C. Tano, Quezon Agricultural Experimental Station, 0916-640-7855 or for interview requests, 0917-979-1629.