Growing and harvesting Orange Blossom 2023

As producers of natural extracts, we'd like to take you behind the scenes of the harvesting and manufacturing process. Producing a quality extract requires technique and experience, and as these are products of nature, we are also subject to the vagaries of the weather. Today, we're talking about the Orange Blossom harvest on our farm in Morocco, season 2023!

Deux années de sécheresse

For the second year running, the Maghreb countries are facing a worrying drought. This situation is the result of several years of below-average rainfall.

Normally, winter rainfall provides a sufficient supply of water for the whole year. Unfortunately, this year again, our farm in Khémisset, Morocco, recorded three times less rain than usual.

Spring was rather cold after a very dry winter. These conditions are generally conducive to abundant flowering of the bigarad trees. However, in a very dry environment, the flowers produced are smaller, which has a negative impact on crop yields per hectare.

In concrete terms, this year we are seeing a 25% drop in flower production compared with the potential of our fields. This means higher harvesting costs because the flowers are lighter. In addition, winter irrigation costs are higher, which is affecting the price of flowers in both Morocco and Tunisia.

Nature's gift

Fortunately, processing has a pleasant surprise in store. Smaller, drier flowers contain more essential oil, improving distillation yields. This partly offsets the higher harvesting and energy costs.

However, in terms of quality, the profile of neroli essential oil is also suffering the effects of climate change, with the following changes observed in recent years:

• A drop in linalool content and an increase in limonene content,
• A broadening of beta-pinene specifications,
• A trend towards an increase in rotatory power.

Faced with these changes, we have had to adjust our specifications.

Discover our neroli essential oil, an orange blossom-based product.