Givaudan expands sustainability programme
Givaudan has formed a partnership to ensure the sustainable supply of benzoin from Laos as part of its Innovative Naturals programme. Benzoin is a raw material used in fine fragrances and consumer products, which villagers in northern Laos extract as gum from styrax trees. The project sees Givaudan collaborate with Agroforex Company, a Laos-based producer and exporter of pharmaceutical and aromatic plants.
Givaudan has formed a partnership to ensure the sustainable supply of benzoin from Laos as part of its Innovative Naturals programme. Benzoin is a raw material used in fine fragrances and consumer products, which villagers in northern Laos extract as gum from styrax trees. The project sees Givaudan collaborate with Agroforex Company, a Laos-based producer and exporter of pharmaceutical and aromatic plants.
Economic and social initiatives already include the construction of a Givaudan-funded secondary school, built to help slow down the rural exodus that could threaten the future of benzoin production. Givaudan is also participating in a programme launched by Agroforex over a decade ago to manage the mountain forest ecosystem. As part of this, villagers are taught to intercrop Styrax tonkinensis with rice and red ginger for additional sources of income.
“Our approach is different to that of fair trade projects because we are trying to develop additional natural products in parallel to benzoin to help village communities to diversify,” said Rémi Pulverail of the Innovative Naturals programme.
This is the third project in the Innovative Naturals scheme and joins those on the sustainable supplies of sandalwood oil in Australia and tonka beans in Venezuela.
