Rosa damascena is a finicky flower and a period of hot dry weather during harvest or a warm early spring can significantly lower the yield and quality of the oil. The right level of rain and atmospheric humidity in May and June are important factors to obtain high yields. This climate prolongues flowering and surpresses evaporation of the oil. Bulgaria currently crops about 1,500 hectares for rose-oil production that yields between 1,000 and 1,300kg of oil per year. Under ideal conditions between 1.5 and 2 million rose flowers produce 1kg of oil and 1kg of Bulgarian rose-oil fetches between Euro 3000 and 5000 in the United States and France. Abvout 70% of the Bulgarian output is shipped abroad to companies such as Christian Dior or Chanel. According to Anna Dobreva of the Institute of Roses, Essential Oils and Medicinal Plants in Bulgaria, rose oil has the unique ability to harmonize the most contradictory scents. In Bulgaria, women still harvest the flowers by hand, the best of them collecting about 30kg a day. The flowers are distilled the same day. Multiple distillation ensures the maximum yield (Jan Stojaspal). Each year in June a rose festival concerning this production is held in Bulgaria. For more information: E-mail: info@rose-festival.com www.rose-festival.com
Such a high value crop indicates a major opportunity for plant breeders and production technology and systems. As part of a UNDP (United National Development Programme) feasibility study 2004/2005, over 100 farmers in the southeastern province of Ningharhar in Afghanistan agreed to turn away from the cultivation opium poppies to producing rose-oil. Under the Promotion of Sustainable Livelyhood Programm a total planting of 130.000 rose bushes covering 32.5ha was planned. The oil-giving rose plants were brought from Bulgaria by the German non-governmental organization Agro Action and the UNDP. When fully in production this extension of rose bushes is calculated in the study to yield up to 26kg of rose oil per year which after distillation should fetch about Euro 104.000. The same extension of poppies could yield as much as 1600kg of raw opium which can still potentially bring farmers very much more money but production is illicit and the market fuels terrorism and trafficking. The Afghan government jointly implemented the project with Bulgaria which is providing Afghanistan with the cultivation and harvesting know-how and the distillation equipment (Kazanlak Simeonava) For further information, E-mail: younus.pajab@undp.org www.undp.org.af www.undp.org.af Substantial plantings of roses for oil production have also been made quite recently in the Yunnan province of China.
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