Italy and Spain may be known for producing olive oil but in Ireland, rapeseed is the golden oil. In recent years, a variety of producers have added some premium products to our supermarket shelves and one of those is Keith Symes of Pure Bea, naturally blended spray oils. No stranger to rapeseed production, Keith, a fourth-generation farmer, is also the founder of Wicklow Rapeseed Oil, the culinary oil range, and Sussed, healthy oils, food and snack products.
Italy and Spain may be known for producing olive oil but in Ireland, rapeseed is the golden oil. In recent years, a variety of producers have added some premium products to our supermarket shelves and one of those is Keith Symes of Pure Bea, naturally blended spray oils.
No stranger to rapeseed production, Keith, a fourth-generation farmer, is also the founder of Wicklow Rapeseed Oil, the culinary oil range, and Sussed, healthy oils, food and snack products.
Pure Bea is his latest range of products and after taking part in the 2024 Grow with ALDI programme, Keith has been announced as one of this year’s winners.
The two other winners are Macey’s Factory Popcorn, from Co Derry, owned by Shay and Marc Donley and Moran’s Mega Jam, Garlic Mayonnaise, from Co Cavan, owned by Kieron and Claire Moran.
Farming background
Keith’s business employs a team of five. He says the low-calorie oil sprays were a real hit with ALDI customers during the shortlist phase last May when they went on shelf for two weeks. Now, customers will have another chance to purchase them from 12 September, while stocks last.
Keith’s career journey had different roots, but his business has planted him firmly in an industry that he loves.
“My degree and background is actually in mechanical engineering and I used to build power stations around Ireland, but my passion has always been in farming. I’d come home at the weekends and farm with my father,” says Keith.
“When my father was handing over the land, the economy was in a downturn and while I decided I wanted to farm full-time – I have always wanted to set up my own business – there wasn’t enough income in it. So I decided to look at how I could diversify and change that.
"I researched the market to see what potential products I could introduce to the farm and I found a farmer in the UK who was growing, pressing and bottling oilseed rape on the family farm. That’s where it kicked off for me.”
“I did a lot of research into it and bought a small press for the kitchen, so I could try all the different varieties of seeds. Oils are like wine – there are so many different varieties and in the same way, the crop is affected by the weather, and soil type… factors like this all affect the quality and the flavour of the finished product.”
From a farming perspective, oilseed rape takes 11 months approximately from planting to harvest. “You plant in July/August and it takes just slightly under a year to harvest it. We rotate the crop each year with wheat or barley. This year I am growing peas, barley and rape, but I tend to change it each year.”
A natural blend
Keith grows the seeds, harvests and bottles the Pure Bea product in the garden county in Hawstown, near Wicklow town. The product includes his crop and some from neighbouring farmers’ crops.
“Two things we have achieved in the last year are that we are BRCG approved, which is one of the highest quality records and food safety standards you can get – we have a double A plus status – and that’s something I am very proud of.”
“Secondly, we now have an automated production facility here, which can cope with high extra volumes of production. Our oil is all-natural. There’s nothing added to it in the process and it’s not refined.
"It goes through an actual cleaning machine, which is just like a sieve to get any dust molecules out. Then it goes into a press and it’s naturally squeezed until the oil comes out. Our oil is triple-filtered, so it then goes through three sets of filters, which improves the flavour, and it’s bottled.”
Pure Bea has found a home in Keith’s business alongside his premium brands Wicklow Rapeseed Oil and Sussed as a territory brand.
The natural blend of rapeseed and extra virgin olive oils, or pure sunflower oils produce a lighter product, which means it doesn’t have an overpowering flavour.
“Because you’re blending it with a pure sunflower oil, it is bringing the smoke point up,” says Keith. “The smoke point of extra virgin olive oil is 180 degrees. By blending it with sunflower oil, this changes to 200 degrees, which means you can fry with it while maintaining a mellow oil flavour.”
“You’re getting all of the goodness of olive oil with the heat from sunflower oil, so it is an absolutely unique product in that respect. We sell it in a 1-cal spray version and is excellent for cooking in air fryers.”
Future growth
Keith also has set sights on the UK market.
“Next steps are that we are working on launching the Pure Bea brand into the UK. We have a company helping us with that at the moment. It’s very exciting.”
Now in its seventh year, the Grow with ALDI programme is dedicated to supporting small and medium-sized Irish businesses. Pure Bea is in ALDI stores nationwide.
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