The blossom distillation season stimulates the economic movement in the citrus-growing areas (Fethi Belaid/AFP)
Producers of “Neroli” seek to Tunisia To overcome the stumbling blocks of the past seasons and preserve the throne of global production of spiritual oil extracted from “castle”, while global competition intensifies with the entry of new players in Market Export is the most important of them Egypt.
The health pandemic and the decline in global demand for “neroli” oil during the past two seasons caused farmers to reluctance for fear of losses, which negatively affected the economic movement in the production areas that benefit from the annual distillation season.
The distillation season contributes to revitalizing the economic movement in the citrus-growing areas in northeastern Tunisia, where transforming citrus blossoms helps create thousands of seasonal jobs, in addition to reaping hard currency revenues in return for selling the “neroli” extract to the most prominent countries in the global perfume industry.
The “Neroli” product is considered one of the highest spirit oils produced in the season of distillation of the flower, and it occupies an important position on the global market level due to the high quality that it enjoys, in addition to the rose water products.
The blossom season, which runs between the months of April and May, is one of the most important agricultural seasons that characterizes the tribal homeland in northeastern Tunisia, despite the short period of harvest and distillation, which does not exceed a month.
Despite the limited space devoted to planting flower-producing oranges, which does not exceed 480 hectares, the units for the production of spirit oils extracted from this white plant seek to further develop the transformation sector in order to preserve Tunisia’s position in the international market for aromatics.
In the manufacture of “neroli” oils and flower extracts, Tunisia relies on 8 conversion units that enable the manufacture of an annual production of at least 1,500 kg of oil, which is included in the composition of the most prominent high-end perfumes.
The product manager at the oldest unit of the neroli oil industry (Shaidan), Alaa Al-Ayachi, stressed that Tunisia has important capabilities to develop industries of spirit oils extracted from the flowers of citrus orange, in light of a great global demand for this substance.
Al-Ayachi said in a statement to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the season of picking and distilling the flower creates great economic mobility and provides permanent and seasonal job opportunities, but the production units work on the sustainability and expansion of this industry by transforming the activity for the rest of the year to extracting spiritual oils from other aromatic plants and ingredients. Citrus trees like branches are pruned in May and June.
He stated that the sector contributes to revitalizing the economy by providing revenues as a result of the concentration of 8 units of product conversion, which in turn export neroli oil at a rate of 1500 kg per year, compared to 2500 euros per kg.
Despite the entry of countries such as Egypt, Morocco and Lebanon in Tunisia’s competition for the Neroli market, Ayachi stressed that the Tunisian product occupies the world lead in terms of quality and quantity, considering that this provides a fertile ground for the development of production and export.
This year, production units are counting on overcoming the pitfalls of the past two seasons that affected the pace of export of the “Neroli” product and rose extracts due to the drop in prices as a result of the health pandemic.
For this reason, Al-Ayachi said that the conversion units are in the process of developing a policy accompanying the producers, to maintain the continuity of providing raw materials and taking care of the citrus plantations of the orange from which the flowers are harvested.
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Orange plantations in Nabeul Governorate extend over an area of 480 hectares, while the annual flower production rate during the last five seasons amounted to regarding 1999 tons.
The regional delegate in the governorate, Hamza Al-Bahri, confirms the recording of a relative development in production, especially during the past three seasons, due to the entry of a significant number of assets into the production stage, the effort made by producers and technicians, and the annual expansion of the plantings.
In a statement to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Al-Bahri stated that the average ton converted by the industrial method is extracted from it regarding 1 kg of neroli and regarding 600 liters of rose water, noting that the level of productivity of the blossom tree changes from season to season, due to its close relationship with climatic conditions and the level of care and interventions that The product performs especially at the level of irrigation and fertilization.
The spokesman explained that the last season witnessed an abundance of production with a sharp drop in prices, due to the presence of a stock of neroli in the conversion units dating back to the past two seasons and the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic in the world, which affected the markets for the sale of perfumes, especially airports.
The official in the Agriculture Delegate also explained the reasons for the drop in prices last season, which affected competitiveness in light of the entry of the Egyptian market on the line with abundant quantities of neroli at low prices, which caused a large number of farmers to refrain from the harvesting process, considering that the selling cost does not cover the expenses of the salvation of the competent workforce. .
Preliminary estimates of the production of cast iron for the current season indicate the possibility of reaching 2542 tons, compared to the production of 2350 tons during the last season, an increase of 8 percent.
