Euromed USA has announced the successful completion of construction of a new saw palmetto berry processing plant in Central Florida in time for processing this year's Saw Palmetto crop. This is the first time a major European extract producer has vertically integrated into berry drying and processing.

The plant employs a new state-of-the-art berry drying technology that makes it one of the most cost effective operations in only its first year.

With this vertical integration step, European-based extractors no longer rely on the purchase of processed berries from a small group of Florida based producers who could, in effect, influence supply and prices. "With this integration, we are able to better assure supply and pricing of our finished saw palmetto extracts to our customers." commented Euromed General General Manager, Joe Veilleux.

"The large number of hurricanes last year and this year provide an example of how the marketplace was extremely unstable, and influenced dramatically by a small group of producers," continued Veilleux. "This year, despite a record number of hurricanes, Euromed was able to process at the new facility, an unprecedented amount of dried berries to produce extract. In the past, hurricanes, and other excuses, would frequently result in inflated prices and limited supplies, which in turn resulted in high extract prices for finished product producers."

The new Euromed facility allows us the company to divorce itself from these market fluctuations and to give its customers a reliable and predictable product supply in terms of quantities and prices.