Comoros to boost ylang-ylang output 33 pct
by Ed Harris

Reuters    Translate This Article
10 July 2007

MORONI (Reuters) - Comoros plans to boost production of ylang-ylang, a key ingredient in perfumes, by about a third over the next two years, an industry leader said.

The Indian Ocean archipelago is the world's biggest producer of the essential oil, turning out about 60 tonnes of the flower per year, or about 80 percent of the world's ylang-ylang.

'I think we can improve our production to 80 tonnes per year in the next couple of years,' Assane Mohammed, the president of the House of Comorian Spices told Reuters in an interview late on Monday.

Mohammed said that 70,000 trees had been planted in the last two years. A tree takes four or five years to produce its first harvest.

The flowers are distilled in Comoros to produce a yellowish transparent liquid, which is then exported by plane almost entirely to France for use in its fragrance industry, he said. The liquid is used in perfumes and aromatherapy products.

Mohamed's group represents some 3,000 professionals in Comoros' key export sectors of ylang-ylang, cloves, and vanilla, he said.

Prices for the coup prone island's key crops, vanilla, cloves and ylang-ylang have collapsed in recent years, leaving the country dependent on foreign aid and remittances but Mohamed said prices had begun to recover in recent years.

A kilo of the essential oil now costs between 90 and 135 euros ($184) at point of export, depending on the quality, Mohamed said, adding that there was room for improvement.

'The price is low, so it has to grow a bit,' he said. Comoros, which has a near-monopoly control of the market, will be careful not to let prices grow too fast, he said.

He said clove prices had risen to $3 per kg from last year's low of $1.80, but this was still less than prices of $7 in 2003.

Prices for vanilla had recovered to between $30 and $50 per kg from a low of $17 six months ago, he said. In 2003 and early 2004, vanilla prices were at a high of $600. Comoros, with European funding, has begun a reforestation programme to mitigate the effects of ylang-ylang's 16-hour distillation process, which uses large amounts of wood, he said.

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