International Market for Mint Extract

My name is MC Lamprecht and I am from Johannesburg, South Africa. I am investigating an investment opportunity ? growing organic mint using a hydroponic system. An obvious first step is to research the international market (demand) for mint (extract) and therefore kindly request any guidance or advice that you may be able to provide.

Accurate and complete market is very difficult to find for most herb commodities. The main problem is that international trade classifications are rarely specific to the crop or its derivatives. Further, in countries where there is domestic production and consumption of the item, there are rarely any good data for those activities and their contribution to world trade.
In your case, there is no classification for mint extracts. The only mint derivatives included in the trade data are essential oils. However the essential oil data do not include alcoholic and other extracts, so it may not be possible to conclude much about the larger mint extract market from the essential oil trade data.
For better or worse, here are recent market data from the United Nations' Comtrade service for essential trade between the United States and the world (USD):
Imports: 2002: 1.7 million kg, $22 million; 2003: 2.2 million kg, $27 million; 2004: 2.3 million kg, $23 million; 2005: 2.5 million kg, $28 million
Exports: 2002: 3.4 million kg, $136 million; 2003: 3.7 million kg, $102 million; 2004: 3.5 million kg, $102 million; 2005: 3.6 million kg, $105 million