Oregon Public Broadcasting

Washington, Oregon and Idaho produce about 85 percent of the nation's peppermint oil. In the midst of the mint harvest now, those producers say they are feeling competitive heat from farmers in other countries. Correspondent Anna King reports.

Northwest farmers are just about finished with their first cutting of mint this year. Drive by one of those fresh-cut fields and your car will be filled with a blast of mint perfume.

This year Northwest farmers are earning up to $30-a-pound for mint oil. That's about double last year's spot price.

Craig St. Hilaire works for a large mint supplier in Harrah, Washington. He says those high prices have boosted the acres grown at home … and abroad, particularly in China and India.

Craig St. Hilaire: “There is certainly an increase in global mint consumption for mint products, but a lot of that growth isn't being capitalized by U.S. producers, it's being filled by foreign competition.”

St. Hilaire says Chinese and Indian farmers grow a slightly different variety of mint, and it smells different. Sometimes companies mix U.S. and foreign mint oil to stretch it.