Aroma Trading Limited

Market Report July 2002

Coriander Oil
Hardly a week goes by without reports of stocks of Coriander Seed Oil running low. This 'news' has been reported for many months now, and one wonders how many buyers took it seriously. Well, it now sems that the 'Coriander Lake' is no more and prices have reached levels last seed in the 1980s. When you consider that yields of Oil from Coriander Seeds are between 0.8 - 1.0%, the prices for Coriander Seed Oil were disproportionally lower than the cost of Coriander Seeds, allowing for production costs.

Eucalyptus Oil
Our broker contacted us to advise that a number of contracts can not be fulfilled due to a lack of available Eucalyptus Oil. Prices are already at a 10-year high, and the 'Merchants of Doom' are predicting prices will increase further before the year end. No doubt this is most-likely another attempt to push prices higher but as long as there is no bulk panic buying, buyers will opt to ride out the storm, so Eucalyptus Oil will continue at current levels.

Geranium Oil
Price of spot Chinese Geranium Oil has increased as fears the drought may cause lower than anticipated yields from the current crop. Egyptian Geranium is plentiful as there was a carryover from last year's crop but as yet they have not followed the Chinese in increasing the prices...

Lavender / Lavandin Oils
Distillation in Bulgaria and France should commence this month. Total Lavender acreage in France has increased by a reported 15% over last year. Remaining parcels of Lavender Bulgarian from last year's crop are minimal and of dubious quality. The carryover of French Lavandin Oil from last year runs in excess of 600 Tonnes, with an anticipated crop of 900 - 1000 Tonnes this year. We should have firm numbers in the coming months, but no major increases expected in prices.

Lemon Oils
The market is still rather depressed and prices remain competitive, especially from Argentina where prices are cheaper than US, Italian and Spanish material.

Litsea Cubeba
The Chinese crop should commence soon. There are large carry-over stocks and we do not expect any price increases.

Rosemary Oil
Drought conditions in Morocco and Tunisia have impacted Rosemary Oil Distillation. Yields and production are down on previous years but prices have only increased slightly.