At the expense of the people of the Comoros Get to know the dark side of the luxury French perfume industry

Luxury French perfumery relies extensively on oils from the Comoros, especially the ylang ylang flower. While local labor suffers from exploitation in the process of producing these oils, farms and distilleries also harm the environment in the Arab archipelago.

Comoros is famous for its exports of aromatic plants and essential oils, mainly vanilla, cloves and ylang-ylang. These three products represent about 70% of what the country exports abroad, as they are used in the manufacture of luxury perfumes and cosmetics.

On the other hand, behind the enchanting aroma of these perfumes lies great suffering, which is endured by local workers, whether in the picking or distillation process, as they are exploited by international perfume companies for meager wages. The cultivation of these plants and the production of these oils pose a threat to the forest cover in the Comoros.

While France comes at the top of the list of importers of these lunar products, in particular the luxury French perfume industry, as it has more than a quarter of the oils and aromatic plants that the archipelago exports. This makes it the first responsible for the poor conditions suffered by workers in the sector there.

Pain ylang ylang

Comoros fulfills more than half of the world's demand for ylang-ylang oil. And in 2022 , these exports represented between 15 and 20% of the country's export revenues, exceeding $ 2.5 million, which made this aromatic plant worthy of the title "Princess of the Comoros".

In the fields, the situation is far from being poetic of that title, where the harvest workers, most of whom are women, work for long hours a day, in conditions that lack any sanitary conditions or protection of any kind, for a price that does not exceed 6.5 dollars a day.

This is the reality revealed by a recent investigation by the French "Mediapart" website, quoting an expert in ylang-ylang affairs, Silati Mbaye, that in "the best conditions" female pickers work for 6 euros ($6.5) per day, and this figure can drop to less depending on what is needed. It will be paid by the foreign importer.

While the men, who run the distillery, are not in the best condition. The investigation reports that distillers receive between 15 and 20 euros ($10.8 and $21) for each distillation cycle, which can last from 10 to 16 hours.

These bonuses are "minimal compared to what luxury brands will gain: we are clearly losing," explained the lunar expert, Silati Mbaye. The essential oils of ylang-ylang are collected by European companies, mostly French, and then sold to manufacturers of luxury cosmetics and perfumes.

In terms of numbers, according to the "Mediapart" investigation, the price per kilogram of untreated ylang-ylang flowers ranges from 50 to 60 cents, while the price of oils does not exceed two euros ($2.1). On the other hand, the prices of the famous French "Dior Chanel No. 5" perfume, in which ylang-ylang oil is mainly used, range from 75 euros ($80.75) for a 35-ml bottle to 246 euros ($265) for a 200-ml bottle.

Threat to the forest sector

In contrast to all this suffering endured by ylang-ylang workers and their exploitation in the labor market, while international brands, and French ones in particular, reap huge profits from their toil, there is a greater danger that threatens the forest sector, through the devastation of ylang-ylang fields into the forests of the archipelago, and the use of distillation units. to burn intensively.

The areas cultivated with ylang ylang in the Comoros are about 500 hectares, and they are always likely to expand , with farmers searching for new fertile lands to obtain abundant production, instead of depleted lands.

In addition to this, the distillation units combined consume the equivalent of 910 kilograms of firewood per distillation cycle. What makes the production of ylang ylang, according to the regional director of forests and environment on the island of Henzuen Bakr Zahlat, contribute to between 15 and 20% of the destruction of the forest cover in the archipelago.