Selling chili sauce to the Mexicans

It's the spicy sauce equivalent of selling coals to Newcastle - a chilli farmer in rainy Northumberland has set his sights on cracking the Mexican market.

Dan May, 38, believes his operation is the world's Northern-most chilli farm, where he grows 60 varieties across the range of taste, heat, colour and size. Now he is about to start exporting his sauces to the Central American country seen as the home of the chilli.

The former photographer makes six sauces, soon to be seven, under the brand name Trees Can't Dance.
He has just begun talks with a Mexican supermarket to sell his products to the world's chilli aficionados.

At his breezy farm in Coanwood, near Haltwhistle, Mr May said: "If you think about it, the biggest market for your product is going to be the place where they use it most frequently.

"Mexico is an ideal place to be selling, the same as the Caribbean and the US."

He begins growing batches of chillies in heated polytunnels early each year, before starting to harvest in July through to December. The chillies are then blended into high-quality sauces and bottled, without using additives or thickening agents. Mr May uses recipes he picked up during his travels around the world as a landscape photographer.

About 2,000 bottles a week are produced under the Trees Can't Dance brand, which refers to the Central American belief that trees can provide a spiritual place to meditate because they remain in one place.

That figure could rise to 5,000 bottles a week soon.