Rosewood and Sandalwood Oil Production

[Guest guest]

Butch Owen <butchbsi

Sat, 20 Dec 2003 16:00:31 -0800

Rosewood and Sandalwood Oil Production

 

 

Hi y'all,

 

Over the years I've written a bit on the above subjects .. all personal

opinion so I won't bother you with that now. I'm not a stupid person ..

my opinions are based on information I've gleaned from numerous sources,

to include discussions with Indian and Brazilian friends, and they lead

me to believe that some who lean a bit more to the Green side than I do

might sometimes cry " Wolf " when they see a stray dawg running loose.

 

I'm also not without concern for the environment .. or conservation of

natural resources and wild critters. Since I was a yonker dreaming of

getting Suzy or Mary in the back seat at a drive in movie I have spent

money (not words) supporting a number of conservation organizations ..

two of which are Ducks Unlimited and the Cousteau Society.

 

If one wants to take a position .. be it left or right on an issue, its

not unusual for that person to disregard information contrary to their

stand and seek only information that will support their position. Those

who didn't ride into town on a tater wagon yesterday know that we can

find information to support any position .. if we are selective enough.

I've often said that for a price, I'll prove monkeys can play football.

 

So .. lemme get away from my personal opinions (for now) and present

some data that you folks can review .. and make your own decisions.

Agreement or disagreement with my personal opinions will have NO impact

whatsoever on my personal opinions. ;-) I do listen to/read different

opinions and might change my opinion if faced with viable information to

the contrary .. but might not care to banter back and forth with one who

thinks differently than me .. because I'm not bored .. I'm very busy.

 

A (not THE but A) source for information on essential oils is Cookson.

 

Their Market Update is worth review .. I follow it often on prices:

http://www.cooksonco.com/marketupdate.htm

 

Now that I have told folks all this stuff .. some can say .. " Hell, I

knew that anyway. " ;-)

 

Here is some info on Rosewood from Cookson .. take it or leave it .. I'm

not willing to support or defend their position .. nor to argue my own.

Not because I don't care .. I just don't have the time for arguing.

 

" Steam distilled from the chipped wood of Aniba Roseodora a tropical,

medium sized, wild growing evergreen from the Amazon basin.

 

We noticed recently that we complain a lot (well, almost as much as JPS

anyway!), about the apparent declining role essential oils/natural

products play in fragrance applications. Yet, we too feel justified in

our harping on this issue as it seems that every day we are noticing the

fall or " slow death " of another natural product in favor of a synthetic

alternative in new formulations. Sometimes this is caused by price

increase/tightening of supply due to natural or market conditions

allowing for synthetics to take over; other times it is caused by origin

or import country governmental regulations and more recently, due to

ecological pressures. A perfect example encompassing all three of the

" diseases " that can kill off an essential oil as a commercially applied

natural is Rosewood oil. It is clearly one of the more important

essential oils that has fallen victim to all of the above.

 

Let’s take a look at the various factors having led to the decline in

usage of Rosewood oil. The first being the introduction of synthetic

linalool to replace Rosewood in the cheap fragrance sector in the early

1960’s. Steffen Arctander in his important tome (or as one man used to

call it " The Essential oils Bible - " Perfume and Flavor Materials of

Natural Origin " ) saw the writing on the wall in 1960 stating that: " Bois

de Rose today is fighting for survival in strong competition with other

essential oils and particularly with synthetic Linalool " . For over 30

years, this essential oil has continually declined in usage from a high

of approximately 500 tons being exported from several South American

producing countries in the 1960’s to an estimated 100 tons total

production (65 mts total exported) from the last sole producing and

exporting country, Brazil.

 

Some statistics provided by Brazilian exporters are quite illuminating:

 

15 tons of wood (about 6 adult trees of 20cm diameter) are required to

produce one 180 kg net drum of oil. Distilleries must now, based on

current governmental regulations, plant eight new trees for every one

cut down. We are also told that approximately 1,000 locals (Indians and

Mestizos) living in the Amazon region still make their living from the

production of Rosewood oil. This year, it is estimated that 780 trees

will be felled to produce the current allowable 130 drums of oil. At

this rate, it has been calculated that there are enough trees currently

present to last the next 1,000 years.

 

The second factor that is at present extremely important to so many of

us, is of course the ecological impact of " tree cutting " . Although there

is at present adequate raw material to meet industry demand for many

more years as seen above, the Brazilian government has made it very

prohibitive even for responsible " green " distillers to continue on a

long term basis. The major concern at this point for all distillers/

exporters is profitability and their raison d’etre. In 1998 the

governmental branch " IBAMA " (Instituto Nacional de Meio Ambiente e

dos Recursos Naturais) was formed. This brought about the introduction

of licensing for distillers and within 1 year, the total number of

distilleries reduced to 4. (There were over 40 twenty years ago!)

 

The cost of licensing for each years’ production (currently at

$25,000.00 per 300 hectares) and labor costs are on the rise; ecological

pressure and governmental restrictions on tree felling continue to

become more stringent. Yet, the government itself provides no funding to

the producers. Invariably, if this continues, prices will have to go up

to cover the costs.

 

The first and second factors can lead to the third which can be in many

cases, the final blow to an essential oil as a widely used commercially

viable ingredient : VIOLENT, UNPREDICTABLE PRICE INCREASES.

 

We have already touched on this subject in the past. Over and over

again, we have seen natural products suffer an extreme situation (for

example Haiti Vetivert oil - remember the Embargo??) only to have prices

increase at geometric rates due to lack of availability. This is then

inevitably followed by its being written out of new formulas or perhaps

partially abandoned on the perfumer’s palette and worst of all - finally

replaced by a synthetic.

 

Archeologists and Naturalists know this as Darwinism (ie - once it’s

gone, it’s not coming back!), we call it " Perfumer-inian Selection: "

(Ah, we finally tied the title into the story - bet you were wondering

when we were going to get to that). Rarely, (although Menthol and

d’Limonene seem to be two of the exceptions) do we see a natural be

re-introduced on a wide commercial scale after having been largely

replaced with another cheaper natural or synthetic. Sad but true.

 

Currently, Rosewood oil has a place in the high end ingredient roster

for top-of-the-line perfumes. However, as we have seen in the past and

will in the future, it is profit margins and ease of procurement that

influence purchasing and ingredient choices for future creations.

 

Perhaps we appear to be on a quest to preserve essential oils and usage

thereof. Well, you are right! That’s how we make our living! So far,

so good with Rosewood - it’s still out there and producers seem to be

hanging in there despite the plethora of problems they are facing;

working with government officials, paying the licensing fees, looking at

plantation options and supplying the market what it demands. " UNQUOTE

-------------------------

 

Now .. lets touch on Rosewood production:

http://www.cooksonco.com/magazinearticles/rosewood.htm

 

BRAZILIAN EXPORTS OF ROSEWOOD OIL:

 

AVERAGE NUMBER OF DRUMS PER YEAR:

 

1940’S 1043 DRUMS PER YEAR

1950’S 1549 DRUMS PER YEAR

1960’S 1092 DRUMS PER YEAR

1970’S 923 DRUMS PER YEAR

1980’S 492 DRUMS PER YEAR

1990'S 262 DRUMS PER YEAR

2000'S 0-100 DRUMS PER YEAR??

 

Now .. lets touch on Rosewood and Sandalwood imports into the USA.

 

At http://www.cooksonco.com/prodinfo.htm#ROSEWOOD

 

We see an decrease in US imports of Rosewood .. and a decline in US

imports of Sandalwood .. and note that this is ALL Sandalwood .. we are

not talking only Indian Mysore Sandalwood.

 

Does this have to do with availability or with government interference?

You can decide for yourself. My opinions:

 

Sandalwood, Mysore: The government of India wants to control export of

Mysore Sandalwood .. not to preserve trees, but to overtax producers.

Prices are becoming extremely high .. even in India (which, by the way,

is a major consumer of Mysore Sandalwood).

 

Rosewood: American companies are stocking up as they see a future with

low production and scarce supply .. and high cost.

 

Finally .. some older information on Rosewood can be found at the

following URL .. which is from the Food and Agriculture Organization of

the United Nations. This is NOT a conservative organization!

 

Note carefully .. " Effects of oil production on the natural resource. "

 

Rosewood ....... http://www.fao.org/docrep/V5350E/V5350e06.htm

 

Sandalwood ..... http://www.fao.org/docrep/V5350E/V5350e08.htm

 

Again, your opinions are just as valuable to you as mine are to me ..

but I'll hold on to mine for now. ;-)

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

Bulk/Wholesale/Retail GC Tested EO, Rose Otto, Tested Hydrosols and

other nice things shipped from my store in Friendsville, MD. Pop: 597

 

PS: One should never fire all their ammo at one time .. keep some in

reserve in case you need to use it later.