Despite Cold, Future Good for Texas Aloe Industry

A winter freeze that devastated the Rio Grande Valley’s citrus industry also hurt the several thousand acres of aloe vera, the cactus-looking plant that local growers say has a “magic potion” for healing cuts, abrasions and sunburns.

But the future is bright, says Reed Reeve, plantation manager for Forever Aloe Plantations outside of Harlingen.

“Aloe seems to have a lot of healings products. Nobody yet has discovered the magic potion--why it is,” Reeve said. “It works. The healing properties have been known since Egyptian times. Why it works, we don’t know yet.”

Half of Acreage Left

Reeve said before the December, 1983, freeze, there were 4,500 acres of aloe vera in the valley. Today, about half of that acreage remains productive.

The citrus industry lost more than half its acreage and about $100 million. Reeve said he didn’t know of any overall damage estimate to aloe vera, but said his company lost $6 million. He said two brief freezes this year cost the company another $2 million.

Even with that, however, the Valley still is home to more than 90% of the aloe vera industry in the United States. California is experimenting with the plant, but Florida’s few aloe vera acres were destroyed during a freeze in January, local growers say.

Forever Living Products owns about 1,200 acres in the Valley, the most of any single company, Reeve said.

“We’re strong. We control our own market. We sell more than we ever did,” he said.

The headquarters of the direct-marketing corporation is based in Phoenix, Ariz., but the operation--growing, processing and packaging--is in Texas.

The crop is grown around the Valley without herbicides or pesticides in order to keep the plant natural, Reeve said.

When the outer green leaf matures, about three years after its planting, it is harvested. From there the plant is taken to a processing plant in Mission, a few miles to the northwest.

There the plant is washed and the outer leaf is stripped, leaving the gel to be stabilized, sent to vats and then to a tank truck bound for production facilities in Dallas. There the aloe vera is placed into more holding tanks where it will be split for use in external or internal products.

Used in Many Products

Aloe vera is used in a numerous products, including external health-care products such as moisturizing lotion, body toner, bath gel, mask powder, suntan lotion, shampoo and conditioner, to internal products as tooth gel, juice, gel, a nutritional bar and a diet-drink formula.

Another Valley aloe vera company, Aloe Vera Farms & Manufacturers has about 110 acres of the plant.

Todd Waller, director of research and development, said the company moved its operations to the valley five years ago in order to be more efficient.

Like Reeve, Waller said the growing, harvesting and processing must be done as quickly as possible in order to get the most out of the plant.

He also said the outlook is good, despite the freeze.

“Everything’s coming back real well,” he said. “It’s going real well because many companies are looking at aloe because of its natural ingredients.”

Reeve, however, said the problem today with aloe vera is that some major companies abuse the name to sell their product. He said some major cosmetic companies use very little aloe vera in their products, but still use the name.

Needs Standards

He believes the aloe vera industry needs to develop standards for its product, such as agreeing on a set percentage of aloe vera that needs to be used in a product.

“Our products have to have high percentages of aloe in the product to be effective,” he said.

Many winter visitors from the north had so many questions about aloe vera that Forever Living Products renovated a home into a tourist information center outside of Harlingen. The center is surrounded by countless acres of aloe vera on the outside and numerous aloe vera products and promotional materials inside.

Reeve said several people in the valley began experimenting with the plant 40 years ago, but not until six or seven years ago did aloe vera begin to become popular.

He declined to say how much profit the company can make, but said it costs about $3,000 an acre to grow aloe vera and profits would depend on the economy at that the time of sale.