Most business people, while they may work late into the night, will get the chance to catch a few hours of sleep in their beds or even at a desk.

Shirley Lindo, however, spends her late nights next to a large boiling pot containing a product that has been a hidden jewel on the market — Jamaican Black Castor Oil.

The product, made from the oil nut bean, although a powerful laxative, is also sought after for haircare and skincare.

Lindo, along with her husband, has been producing castor oil for over 20 years. They operate their factory on their home property just outside of Spanish Town, St Catherine, nestled on a part of the Bernard Lodge Estate.

The factory, which was built by the castor oil enthusiasts a few years ago, has a drying house as well as a specially constructed exterior building to facilitate the arduous process of boiling the castor oil.

Oil produced by Lindo is labelled “Outa Earth (Processors Limited)” and is certified by the Bureau of Standards with the ‘Jamaican Made’ mark, approving the authenticity and quality of the product.

“Our label Outa Earth doesn’t bottle black castor oil, when I say black, … it is black castor oil by the process, but we don’t put black castor oil on the shelf, our castor oil is a medium dark or the light one, which people request,” Lindo explained, while stirring a bubbling pot of oil.

Describing the look of the castor oil as oatmeal, she said that they use a special tool to continuously scrape the bottom of the pot so the oil being produced doesn’t burn.

“We try to keep the traditional method of doing the oil, the only thing we have done differently is we have introduced machinery to press it,” Lindo told the Jamaica Observer, explaining that she tries her best to stick to the traditional process of producing castor oil.

“And so, from time to time, I bring in an old woman to tell me if mi really on line, the psycho-spiritual powers associations of castor oil is what is going to sell our oil differently,” she said.

Lindo added that although she grows her own beans, her business also supports communities through buying seeds from other castor bean growers.

“I spoke to a young lady in St Ann where she and her mother makes the oil. They are a cause-centre in the community because people can come to them and sell them seeds, so if you have a situation where you have a factory and your factory supports a radius of six to 10 miles around you, people can eat dinner, you not saving souls, but you taking people off the pressure of ‘mi can’t eat a food’,” Lindo argued.

She added that her aim is to produce 60 per cent of her bean requirement, which means she will still be able to buy from other seed suppliers, thus heightening the potential of inspiring income-generating centres within her community.

Lindo explained that while a lot of people are planting the oil nut, more oil producers are needed.

She argued that proper operational procedures should also be employed, so that producers are all on the same page.

This, she said, includes agreeing on a range of prices, so that producers are not forced to sell below a certain price or take advantage of customers through sky-high pricing.

The entrepreneur contended that Jamaicans need to put value to the things they produce, such as castor oil as it is a handmade product and “there is no machine that stirs the pot”; the beans have to be hand-picked, sorted and hand-pressed.

She is now seeking to have her castor oil fully established in the marketplace.

“With my product Outa Earth, I’m not all over the place, I’m in some pharmacies, I think Fontana has us, we have a presence in quite a few places, I have a local lady who does work for me, she gets it on the shelf, I export mainly in large quantities to the United States,” she explained.

“People come and buy oil from me, oil is available in any amount, I sell it in standardised four-ounce, eight-ounce and two-ounce. My top price for eight-ounce is $1,500 and I don’t think I’ll raise it for now because I think everybody should have it.”

Lindo, one of the main advocates for the development of the local castor oil industry, stated that the product has the potential to do very well on the world market.

“Basically what is happening is Jamaican black castor oil is not coming from Jamaica, everybody seems to know, but nobody seems to care. The fact is because of that, the oil that people are getting abroad is chemically extracted or cold-pressed, or colouring such as cinnamon, charcoal, are added and this is not talk, we have actually tested some and we know,” she told the Observer.

Lindo explained this happens because some people are ignorant of what exactly is castor oil and disregard its value thinking that “a idiot mek castor oil”.

She said that as a result Jamaica is being misrepresented as well as missing out on billions of dollars internationally.

According to Lindo, there needs to be a stronger commitment from the government to protect and support the local industry, through the Jamaica Castor Industry Association.

She conceded, however, that she was pleased to hear that the agriculture ministry plans to clear bureaucracy and assist the association, but stressed that this assistance needs to ensure Jamaica reaches the standards put in place by entities such as the World Trade Organization since it is only through pushing the need for high standards internationally will the industry succeed.