Dennis Archer, Toona Essential Oils, 43 Camp Street, Sutton, NSW, 2620, Australia

`Where can I get the best quality essential oil for the cheapest price ?�

Now there�s a question, and if you want a quick answer - grow and distil your own. That way you won�t have a wages bill and you control the quality i.e. if anything goes wrong, there is only yourself to blame. Mind you, there may be a bit of a learning curve, you would need to find the vegetation from which the essential oil is to be produced, and you�d need a distillation unit.

On the other hand, it would be easier to contact an essential oil seller. They may answer `Not in my shop�, but as this tends to put people offside, the usual answer goes something like this : `I have some fine oils, which are produced by growers and distillers with whom I have developed a relationship over several years. They put a lot of effort into supplying me with a quality product, so I pay them a fair price. I, myself, put a lot of time and money into ensuring that the oils are bottled, stored and displayed properly so that the oils do not deteriorate. The labels have the botanical name of the oil, the country of origin, the method of distillation, a batch number, and any pertinent safety information. I educate myself on the do�s and don�ts of essential oils and am prepared to spend the time passing that information onto you, so that you will become a regular customer. I know the provenance of the oils, I have satisfied the regulatory requirements for handling and selling essential oils, and I will provide you, if you so wish, with an analysis of the oil and a material safety data sheet, which will tell you more than you need to know about the oil and handling thereof. Of course, the price I will charge you will reflect the time and effort I have dedicated to selling this little bottle of oil, but I�m sure you will be satisfied. Now, what sort of essential oil do you want, and why do you want it ?�

The seller has taken a professional attitude to providing essential oils, and so has a golden opportunity to educate the buyer an all the aspects of the essential oil industry. We know that the seller has developed a rapport with the growers and distillers, so let�s look at the industry from a growers viewpoint, and how quality (and in parallel) price are related. Incidentally, contacting a grower direct, who is prepared to sell to individual buyers, will probably get a response similar to that above.

The grower may be one or more indigenous people seeking out and collecting raw materials - the biomass. The biomass may be mechanically harvested from huge plantations, with state of the art stainless steel distillation equipment. The crop may be grown organically, with lots of labour involved, or the grower may use synthetic herbicides and pesticides.

How does the production affect the price ? The indigenous people produced oil may be cheap to produce, but the transport costs may be high. The organic oil may be expensive because of high labour and certification costs. Both of these may be also be expensive because of low supply. The plantation oil may be cheaper because buckets of oil are produced using economies of scale. All three can, and do, produce quality oils.

In all cases, you are dealing with a natural product - and that has to be grown and nurtured. This takes time, possibly many years, and everything that takes time costs money. Throw in the vagaries of agricultural endeavours - flood, drought, cold, hot, pests, machinery breakdowns - it�s a hard life on the farm. That however, is often compensated by the way of life, but it�s not all beer and skittles. Farmers take a lot of pride in their work, trying to grow the best quality they can, be it corn or essential oils, but one can be excused for getting a little down when, the day before harvesting the best crop you�ve had for years, a hail storm destroys the lot !

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