AP-4 rosehips belong to the dog rose Rosa canina L. and AP-4 quality stands for:
Standardized product
Plantation cultivation – organic certified
Unique climate for cultivation of rosehips in the south of Chile: Sunny days and cool nights
Cultivation optimization: Selected soil, optimal harvesting time, use of irrigation and soil microorganisms
Sustainable production in Chile: Green energy in drying process
FSSC 22000 certified production facilities for final product production in Germany
Full traceability from plantation to consumer
Experts behind product development and quality control of the product
A unique taste is a characteristic of the AP-4 quality
AP-4 rosehips are cultivated in volcanic soil in a sunny region with cool nights in the south of Chile. The optimal cultivation conditions together with the selected variety of the dog rose Rosa canina are important factors for the high quality level of the rosehip powder from SUKO Nordic. The climate in the south of Chile with sunny days and cool nights provides the most optimal conditions for high quality and standardized rosehip production.
AP-4 Rosehip plantation
Our relationships in Chile led us in 2008 to discover an organic rosehip plantation located in the southern part of the country.
Our interests and intentions were the development of health supplements based on these unique plantation rosehips (AP-4 variety). In 2009 AP-4 Rosehip Powder for joint health was developed as the first organic certified rosehip powder of plantation origin.
Cultivation in a micro-climate
Chile is with 4300 km the longest country in the world with unique regional climate zones. Warm summer Mediterranean climate and oceanic climate zones characterize the climate in the south part of Chile. The cold Humboldt current from the South along the Chilean coast and the Andes mountains to the east causes a special micro-climate with cool nights in the ripening season that is optimal for rosehip cultivation.
Focus on AP-4 Quality is an ongoing process
Improving rosehip cultivation and processing is an on-going process, and we strive to implement all optimizations in order always to have the highest quality of rosehip products. Everything related to cultivation, plantation extensions and drying procedures are planned in collaboration with our partner in Chile. AP-4 Quality includes an AP-4 specific DNA barcoding technique that can be used to verify the presence of our AP-4 rosehip in the finished products.
AP-4® Rosehip powder is the only standardized rosehip powder on the market.
Since there are no known single ingredient in rosehip related to effects on joint health that can be used for product standardization, it is not possible to standardize rosehip powder by any ingredient or by making extracts. SUKO Nordic has solved or circumvented this problem by using a genetically standardized plantation production of a single rosehip variety, the AP-4.
All procedures are standardized including the harvesting time, irrigation, drying procedure product manufacture in Germany (FSSC 22000 certified).
Proof of Concept
All these factors are found to be reflected in the taste of SUKOFLEX Rosehip Powder. In Scandinavia, the health benefits of rosehip powder have been known for almost 20 years. We saw, however, Germany as a Proof-of-Concept market for our export potentials. In 2010 when we started looking for partners on the German market, the German consumers hardly knew about rosehip powder. If we were able to set up in Germany with a new type of product, this would be our proof of concept. Our AP-4 rosehip powder was tested in the German Reformhaus chain (as a co-brand, https://www.reformhaus-shop.de/reformhaus-plus-hagebuttenpulver-bio-500g/a-91067/) in 2011, and it turned out to be a very successful product well accepted by the German consumers. The third year after the introduction of AP-4 Rosehip Powder and capsules, we obtained the reward Reformhaus Product of the Year 2014.
