By Ranjit Monga
A lot can be said about the opportunities which are available today in the aroma Industry – a nearly 25 billion $ industry worldwide, of which India constitutes only 500 million as of now.
Having
covered many industrial sectors as a business correspondent, film maker and
writer, it is easy to see that this is one of the most comprehensive
sectors, with a scope so wide, that it may not even be entirely visible.
First,
it is an ancient industry, catering to such basic products of daily use, that
it is never likely to die down.
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| We live in a world of heady aromas and fragrances Pic courtesy: Tarai Creations (Instagram Link) |
Shukla was speaking at a webinar titled ‘Career
Avenues in Aroma Industry -2020’ (CAAI-2020), organised by Association of
Chemistry Teachers, Mumbai, India and Essential Oils Association of India,
Noida recently.
Giving an example, Shukla says beauty products are used daily and will always remain popular. “Whether it is teenagers looking for skin or make up -products or older adults looking for anti-ageing formulations and hair dyes, there will always be end consumers. This also makes it a sector with a lot of potential for career and business opportunities”, he says.
Recently
we have seen a shift towards ‘natural’ products, be it in beauty, cosmetics,
toiletries, spiritual products (agarbatti, dhoopbatti and havan samagri etc. )
or spices. Raw and unprocessed are the
new age mantras. This has added another dimension to the aroma industry as the
demand for ‘organic’ products rises. This is accompanied by a boom in
aromatherapy industry like spas, saloons and hotels offering these services. A
rise in demand for liquid hand wash, sanitizers and cleanliness products which
are fed raw material by the aroma industry has also opened opportunities,
especially for small entrepreneurs.
India is a leading producer of mint oil, lemongrass, jasmine, tuberose absolutes and spice oils & oleoresins . While it is counted among the top three essential oil producing countries which include Brazil and Indonesia, there are still a lot of fragrant materials which remain unexploited.
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| Above: A view of the FFDC Campus, Kannauj. Uttar Pradesh, India Below: A rose farm in Kannauj |
“Out of 110 cultivated natural fragrant raw materials, which cover 95 % of the global consumption, 52 are available in India”, Shukla explains adding that only 60 percent of them have been exploited while the rest 40 per cent will provide the prospects for the future”.
Each material has an entire pipeline of products starting from farming the crop to distillation and extraction. Giving an example of rose, the queen of flowers and cultivated widely in and around Kannauj, he says ‘ If you use hydro distillation or any other method of extraction, each will give you a different set of products and each feeding an industry”. So, you can produce essential oil, rose water, rose absolute, rose attar, isolates, resins, oleoresins, and resinoids.
The de-oiled mass after extraction is used for agarbatti, dhoopbatti, face pack and as fuel.
Some of the industries associated with these products are the fragrance and flavour industry, aromatherapy, beauty and cosmetics, pharmaceutical, wellness etc. The fragrance and flavour industry itself caters to toiletries, deodorant, sanitizers, food flavouring, grooming products, cleanliness products, soft drinks, ice cream, bakery products, agarbatti, havan samagri, among others, each of these have their own set of opportunities for trained personnel.
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| A view of the FFDC Lab |
But,
as far as the training is concerned, the avenues are limited. FFDC, Kannauj (www.ffdcindia.org) is the only organisation which provides
training in different aspects like aromatic crop cultivation, distillation of
essential oils, aroma technology, fragrance & flavour making, its quality assessment etc. FFDC
offers short term courses from 3 days to 3 weeks and also one year courses of
NSQF ( National Skill Qualification Framework ) level 4 & 6, approved by
NSDC, Govt of India after intermediate & graduation. Worldwide the top institutes
are the ‘Grasse Institute of Perfumery’ and ‘Institutes Superior International of Perfumes, Cosmetics
and Aromatic Alimentaire’ (ISIPCA) both based in France. Others are in Bangkok,
Singapore, Japan, UK etc.
V J Vaze College of Art, Science &
Commerce, Mumbai had tied up with ISIPCA
to offer a ‘Post Graduate Diploma in Perfumery and Cosmetics Management’ but now they offer it independently. ICT
Mumbai also offers M. Tech ( Perfumes & Flavour) but with only five limited
seats
According
to Dr Jyoti Marwah, a doyen in the field of Aromatherapy, there are several
avenues in what she refers to as 'bio-entrepreneurship' for youngsters. She advocates gaining knowledge
of all aspects of fragrant material from land to lab to wellness. These include
crop cultivation and being able to identify plant components and their effects,
distillation and extraction, therapy and wellness, composing fragrances and
designing products and consultancy for aroma tourism. “When
you know the components of molecules, how they will impact the human body and
disease you can be a good therapist”. She says. She also advocates using
essential oils along with knowledge of vaastu, astrology, massage therapy,
reflexology, acupressure and sugandh upchar, which is mentioned in our ancient
scriptures, as avenues for new entrants.
But, aromatherapy as such remains a grey area as lack of scientific research has
ensured that there is no legal basis for practising this ancient therapy. What
we have is a handful of institutes across the world which provide private certifications,
but which are not legally recognised. Similarly, there are a lot of other grey
areas in this field.
And
this refers to the lack of standardisation in the aroma industry. “We in India
seem to have a higher body resistance, but its not like that in other
populations. So when we sell our essential oils to other countries we should
not fear that it will impact them in some way, therefore, the Industry needs to
evolve standards which everyone can follow”, says Rohit Seth, President, Sugandh
Vyapaar Sangh. He recommends value
addition and enhancing quality for expansion of the sector. “Ultimately we need
to become a brand”, he says and adds that India can rule the world in this sector
if new ideas and theories are propounded, and followed up with research and
development to create innovative products.
