YOUR INDUSTRY
HEALTH BENEFITS SPUR GROWTH FOR BLACKCURRANT GROWERS
The cGP Lab co-founder and agronomist Jim Grierson discusses blackcurrant maturity with a grower
Five years ago, the blackcurrant industry faced serious challenges when a major buyer ended its contracts with half the industry’s growers. The remaining dozen growers are now finding a solid market in health benefit products. HELENA O’NEILL speaks with Jim Grierson of The cGP Lab about the industry and the growing health benefits of blackcurrants. New Zealand blackcurrants rank significantly higher in levels of antioxidant activity than other fruits. They appear to help the body’s own response to oxidative stress and conditions including cardiovascular diseases, asthma, diabetes and age-related degenerative diseases. According to Blackcurrants New Zealand (BCNZ), research reveals that benefits including endurance, recovery and mental performance are associated with anthocyanins, which are major antioxidant compounds. The cGP Lab (formerly VitalityNZ) was founded by Jim Grierson and David Eder who met through a mutual love of blackcurrants. Jim is also an agronomist and has acted as an advisor to the blackcurrant industry for the past 40 years.
26 NZGROWER : JUNE 2022
During their time in the blackcurrant business, Jim and David have seen the health benefits that friends and family experience when they regularly consume blackcurrant products. This led the pair to discover the potential health properties of the fruit, boosted by a chance encounter with Auckland University scientist Dr Jian Guan, whose analysis of New Zealand blackcurrants found they were packed with cyclic Glycine-Proline (cGP). Dr Jian says cGP is a brain nutrient that normalises a hormone essential for overall body health, and may play a wider role in improving circulation and creating more new blood vessels than we previously understood.
cGP is a brain nutrient that normalises a hormone essential for overall body health “The health benefits that we have in New Zealand blackcurrants are high levels of anthocyanins, and we’ve also discovered the level of cGP in New Zealand blackcurrants,” Jim says. “Those levels are not like that overseas, so it is quite unique to New Zealand.”
