As awareness grows of the health benefits of cold-pressed rapeseed oil over olive oil, Jill McGregor and her team at Borderfields, supplier of Oleifera, are well placed to benefit from rising demand We are the only Scottish producer of cold-pressed rapeseed oil, which is grown by our 12 farmer investors on either side of the Scottish border. Everything has a certificate to say what field it came from, so the crop grown in Scotland can be marketed as Scottish, which makes it the only Scottish culinary oil you can buy. When we started in late 2005 there were only two producers in England and now there are at least 12. Borderfields was formed as a group of landowners and growers looking at ways to add value to existing crops. We came up with the idea of cold-pressed rapeseed oil, which has less than half the saturated fat of olive oil and 10 times the Omega-3, as well as balanced levels of Omega-6 and 9 and cholesterol-lowering linolenic acid. We did a feasibility study and held focus groups in London and chose the Oleifera name, which is Latin for oil-bearing seed. We converted part of a farm steading, bought a press from Sweden and trialled 14 different varieties, using a professional tasting panel of chefs, and bottled our first commercial product a year after starting. Initially we sold to farmers' markets and delis, just to test the market, but they took all we had, so we knew we were doing something right. Other companies use a blend of rapeseed oils or heat-treated ones that have lost their health benefits in production, but ours is a pure, single variety with a pleasant taste. Cold pressing means there is nothing done to it other than filtering and allowing to settle, but it still has a high burn point, which means it is fantastic for roasts as well as for making mayonnaise and baking. We got a bigger press last April, increasing production capacity from 25 cases (12x500ml bottles) a week to 400 cases, and with a wide grower base of 12 farmer investors with thousands of acres, we have the capacity to support the brand. Local food producing group Northumbrian Larder held buyers' days last spring that got us into 20 Sainsbury's and 20 Asda stores as a trial in October. We are now in about 200 retail outlets around the country as well as selling through our website. We have three full-time staff and I am involved in the day-to-day running of the business while still helping out on our farm. Some producers of new products would like to stay as a cottage industry, but we want to increase in size. We want to keep hold of our brand, because it has won awards, but are willing to look at own label as well.

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