The price of patchouli essential oil has skyrocketed in the past year. An crucial and historic scent in perfume and body care products, various issues have conspired to create a shortage and suppliers and formulators are scrambling to control cost increases in their products.
I know I'm an eternal optimist. I also have a strong background in ethnobotany, economic botany and agriculture. I specialized in tropical and subtropical agriculture in my studies, keep this in mind when you check out the You Tube link, below.
In 2005, a team from Haiti met with the President of Rwanda to propose a Patchouli project. There is a series of five videos on You Tube recording the process of establishing a patchouli essential oil industry in Rwanda by the movers and shakers of this project. The videos are educational and uplifting. I am very aware of he political and military turmoils of Rwanda, having several close friends who traveled there in the aftermath and are helping with the rebuilding. Relative stability has returned, more so in some areas than others. When poverty is addressed in a forthright and productive way, all may prosper. Perhaps patchouli is one economic way to move forward.
Patchouli essential oil prices have skyrocketed recently due to many factors in the countries producing the heady oil. A few years ago environmental and political maladies struck the vanilla absolute industry, and those with vision took cuttings to India and Indonesia and now vanilla prices - for the beans, not the absolute as it appears the extractors have kept the price artificially high - have come back to a reasonable level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XgA1bD4h8Q
I love the methodical way in which the questions about establishing and distilling the oil are addressed. Distillation units in place - at this time for geranium - appear in videos # 4 and 5.
Sustainable agriculture, and opportunistic agriculture to replace the fields that may be disappearing due to urban development, desertification or other reasons will always exist, so I do not despair very much when I hear of problems (such as the vanilla crisis of teh early 2000's.)
I find the videos very uplifting and relaxing -- and realistic in what may occur.
Hi Anya,
My name is Arthur from kenya and ‘ve really been interested alot in patchauli farming.Where and how can I get the seed to introduce to our farmers in Kenya? Kenyas’ climate is fairly the same as in Rwanda cozwe are all close to the equator.
Apart from that ‘ve been working o a site with a friend known as http://www.try-african-food.com and we are tryin to promote indigenous traditional and organic african foods.We also have alot of chamomile from our farmers and we are looking for markets.
I look forward to your responce.
my mail is:
mdkarugu@try-african-food.com
cell:+254 720869339
Tell:+254 0202113836