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Grape seeds, the waste from wine-making, is being pulled
from the bin and turned into a saleable commodity. There
are millions of kilos of grape waste produced, 20 million
just in Marlborough.
"We wanted to see if there was any value in those
seeds or in the skins," says Bruce Cardwell of
New Zealand Extracts."We have developed a process
to extract the antioxidants from the seeds and it's
a water only process," he explains. "The water
extraction removes the antioxidants that occur naturally
in the products, so what it does is that it doesn't
change the configuration of the extracts."
The company believes a fully automated machine they
have created is a world first because it produces a
natural product, in a healthy way.
And international giants are buying the raw materials
and developing it into cosmetics, food and even vitamins,
as the demand for healthy and safe products increases.
"It is our belief that to produce a natural product
you needed to use just water," says Cardwell.
But it's not just things like red wine chewing gum
that's being sold.
"We want to develop the company so that we are
not only taking the product from the farm yard of the
wineyard or wherever but taking it right through to
the end products," says Cardwell.
It's Kiwi trial and error that is seeing people around
the world reap the benefits of waste from wines.
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