Ilchi Lee inspects one of the young hwangchil trees. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
The sight of a crop never grown before in New Zealand has been puzzling residents north of Kerikeri.
The conversion of former dairy paddocks alongside State Highway 10 at Kapiro has sparked much conjecture in recent months about what the plants are, who's growing them, and why.
It turns out there's a good reason even seasoned horticulturalists don't recognise the young trees - hwangchil, a Korean medicinal plant, is new to New Zealand.
The trees are being grown on a farm bought by Kerikeri resident Ilchi Lee, who is variously described as an author, a businessman and a spiritual leader.
Hwangchil, a Korean medicinal plant, is new to New Zealand. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
His business interests in the Bay of Islands are centred on tourism - he is developing an "eco village" on the edge of Puketi Forest, west of Kerikeri, and he owns a motel and a holiday resort - but he also has an education centre, a kiwifruit orchard, and a hobby farm catering to his international visitors.
The hwangchil orchard is his first attempt at creating a new industry in Northland.
Hwangchil, or Dendropanax morbifera, is a shrub native to the Korean peninsula used in traditional medicine.
Lee already uses hwangchil grown in Korea to make skincare products with claimed anti-ageing effects.
His aim, once he has Food Safety approval, is to use New Zealand-grown hwangchil in a range of food products.
Ilchi Lee and Yewon Hwang, of NZ Eco Farms, in their hwangchil orchard north of Kerikeri. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
A director of NZ Eco Farms, Yewon Hwang, said so far 25,000 trees had been planted on 7ha.
It had taken three years to work out how to get biosecurity clearance to import the seeds, she said.
The trees had been raised in pots before being planted in paddocks and were now about two years old.
Hwang said growing the trees in New Zealand conditions was a case of trial and error.
"We are still learning about how they grow here. We are always experimenting and learning," she said.
Kikuyu was proving to be one of their biggest challenges, especially given their reluctance to use chemical sprays.
In Korea the young trees were planted directly into pasture, but Korean growers did not have to reckon with Northland's vigorous, all-smothering kikuyu grass.
However, she said the trees themselves did not need much care.
"They like well-draining soil but they're not too fussy, so they could be planted on marginal farmland as an extra source of income."
Ilchi Lee said the trees grew slowly in Korea, where they were confined to the warmer south coast.
They seemed to grow better in New Zealand, which was not entirely surprising - kiwifruit originally came from Asia and only became a major commercial crop when grown in New Zealand.
Lee said New Zealand had the environment, the space and the growth rate to make a hwangchil industry work, though there were also new challenges to overcome.
All parts of the plant could be used but mostly the leaves were harvested, freeze dried and powdered.
Lee said there was already demand for hwangchil products in Korea, North America and Europe.
He envisaged making teas, beverages, supplements, and healthy substitutes for gum, sweets and biscuits.
He planned to keep expanding the area planted in hwangchil, and create a "healing park" on the 119ha former dairy farm.
Lee said he had applied to NZTA for permission to hold events on the property.
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