Tag Archives: alternative
Bigger Stink Means Higher Price as Men Crave Rare Oud Fragrance
By Susan Hack – Sep 19, 2013 For centuries, scent hunters have indiscriminately cut down old-growth forests in search of the resin produced by wild Aquilaria trees, which is burned as incense, carved into ritual objects and distilled into oud — the most valuable natural oil on earth. Photograph: Mitchell Feinberg/Bloomberg Pursuits The first time Mike Perez wore dehn al-oud — an essential oil distilled from the resin of Asian Aquilaria trees — he was so appalled by the smell that he hid inside his home. Enlarge image Musk Oud by Kilian. Photograph: Courtesy of Kilian Enlarge image M7 Oud Absolu by Yves Saint Laurent. Photograph: Courtesy of YSL “I put on way too much, and frankly, it smelled like animal butt,” says Perez, a 42-year-old manager for Barclay’s Real Estate Group in Miami. Fragrances reveal their true nature as they evaporate on the skin, Bloomberg Pursuits magazine will report in its Autumn 2013 issue, so Perez resisted the temptation to wash. “The barnyard note started changing into something intensely woody, damp and complex,” recalls the fragrance enthusiast, who has a collection of almost 1,500 scents. “It lasted 24 hours, and by then, I understood why some have described oud as transcendent. I invited a friend over to try a tiny swipe; after the initial shock, he became emotional as it evoked memories of a boyhood vacation by a lake and the smell of his skin and bathing suit and even the dock drying in the summer sun.” Akin to such potent, primeval scents as ambergris and Himalayan deer musk, oud (the name means wood in Arabic) is an alluring mystery even to those who know it well. Used by the Ancient Egyptians for embalming and mentioned in the Bible’s Song of Solomon, the resin is produced by a rare and little-understood defense mechanism: When disease-carrying microbes breach the trunk of an Aquilaria tree, a dark and extremely aromatic resin is secreted, invisible beneath the outer bark. Burned as Incense For reasons still unknown to science, fewer than 2 percent of wild Aquilaria trees ever produce resin. For centuries, scent hunters have indiscriminately cut down old-growth forests in search of the substance, which is burned as incense, carved into ritual objects or distilled into the most valuable natural oil on earth. Half a teaspoon of oud oil made from 100-year-old trees for Oman’s Sultan Qaboos in 1982 sold to a private collector in 2012 for $7,000. In China , demand for top-quality resin has pushed prices as high as $300,000 per kilogram. Despite a ban on the harvesting of wild Aquilaria by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species , such pricing has triggered widespread poaching and a race to perfect sustainable techniques for artificially infecting farmed trees. Smell of Money To the $31.6 billion fragrance industry, oud and its aficionados smell like one thing: money. Sales of oud fragrances rose 34 percent in 2012, according to New York-based consumer research firm NPD Group Inc. Such scents were virtually unheard of in the global market before 2002, when Yves Saint Laurent released Tom Ford ’s M7, widely acknowledged as the first Western oud fragrance. Today, out of more than a thousand new scents released annually, one in eight contains oud. The developing taste for oud reflects “trends for intense, intriguing, daring scents that tap into a desire to travel and experience other cultures,” fragrance historian Elena Vosnaki says, and has helped drive sales of prestige male fragrances in the U.S. alone to $953 million. In the past year, Armani, Dior (CDI) , Ferrari and even the Body Shop have all jumped on the bandwagon. Perfumer Kilian Hennessy — the cognac heir who introduced Musk Oud, the latest in his line of oud fragrances, in June under the By Kilian label — caught the bug on a 2008 trip to Dubai, where oud incense wafting through malls, mosques and hotel lobbies has become as signature a scent as lavender is to Grasse, France . ‘Weapon of Seduction’ “To Westerners, men’s fragrance is a weapon of seduction,” Hennessy says. “But to people in the Arab Gulf, oud is comforting, part of their olfactory world and an envelope in which they feel protected.” The oud used in all By Kilian fragrances is synthetic, bioengineered to approximate the real deal. That said, “I have never smelled a synthetic oud that re-creates the complexity and intensity of the real one,” Hennessy says. According to Robert Blanchette , a forest pathologist at the University of Minnesota , the scent released by the highest-grade natural oud oils comprises more than 150 separate compounds. “Even with mass spectrometry and gas chromatography, we still don’t have the complete signature,” he says. Blanchette, who has spent two decades investigating Aquilaria trees in conjunction with the Amsterdam-based Rainforest Project foundation, has patented a technique to artificially infect saplings, 100 percent of which go on to produce resin, although it’s less dense than that of centuries-old trees. Chemical Signature “The chemical signature is very close, and our hope is that in the future, it will become a viable source,” he says. Meanwhile, “harvesting wild trees will eventually kill oud, because of the loss of biodiversity,” says Ensar, an online purveyor of organic oud who declines to reveal his full name and who spends much of the year in Asia seeking out the best resin. “Aquilaria trees have to fight disease and sometimes die for oud to come into existence,” he says. “I wanted to cry when I cut down a farmer’s 60-year-old tree in Thailand that was fully loaded with resin. It’s all extremely existential.” “Oud takes a commitment, both financially and in the way you wear it,” Barclay’s Perez says. “I wear it only on special occasions and never to the office. But most of the time, I wear it for myself.” To contact the reporter on this story: Susan Hack at hacksusan@aol.com To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ted Moncreiff at tmoncreiff@bloomberg.net Continue reading
Ag Secretary Vilsack Reaffirms Support for Biofuel Mandates
The Obama administration strongly supports biofuel mandates and opposes any legislation that would return transportation fuel choice to the states or the people, said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in a speech to ethanol producers. Vilsack Blasts Congress In a September speech sponsored by the ethanol industry, Vilsack blasted efforts in Congress to amend the 2007 statute that forces consumers to purchase biofuels and ethanol-blended gasoline. Under the law—passed by a Democrat-controlled Congress and signed by Republican President George W. Bush—refiners are required to blend biofuels into the nation’s motor fuel supply in greater quantities every year, with the mandate reaching 36 billion gallons a year by 2022. More than half that amount, or 21 billion gallons, is required to come from what are called “next-generation fuels” that do not use corn starch as a feedstock. “There is no need for Congress to intervene in this,” Vilsack said. “There is no need for Congress to try to rewrite this renewable fuels standard. They got it right the first time.” Mandates Face Wide Opposition Whether Congress “got it right the first time,” as Vilsack says, is at the center of an intense debate. Opponents of the renewable fuel mandates, which include environmentalist groups, livestock producers, automobile associations, and consumer advocates, point out the mandate diverts 40 percent of the nation’s corn crop away from feeding people and livestock. This in turn drives up food prices and induces farmers to develop marginal cropland that would otherwise be left in its natural state. The ethanol itself, moreover, delivers fewer miles per gallon and fewer miles per dollar than gasoline. Adding to the ethanol controversy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently approved the sale at fueling stations of gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol as conventional gasoline, up from the former 10 percent cap. Automotive engineers warn the higher blend of ethanol will make fuel substantially more corrosive and will increase damage to vehicles. “If the EPA continues to dictate unrealistic levels of ethanol that fail to recognize declines in gasoline consumption, one of two scenarios will occur. Refiners will either be forced to raise the price of gasoline to pay fines to the EPA, or they will be forced to export raw gasoline in order to make a profit, leaving a massive shortage of gasoline here at home,” U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, noted in an open letter published on his website. EPA Requires Nonexistent Product A further problem arises with cellulosic ethanol mandates imposed by EPA. Contrary to the expectations of lawmakers in 2007, fuel made from switchgrass, corn stover, wood chips, and other materials remains commercially unviable. Nevertheless, EPA is using its discretion under the law to tell refiners they must use cellulosic ethanol that, for all practical purposes, does not exist. EPA is targeting refiners with steep fines for not blending the nonexistent cellulosic ethanol into gasoline. An Oil Industry Conspiracy? Unmoved by such arguments, Vilsack told the ethanol producers the oil industry wants biofuel manufacturers to fail so they can buy up the ethanol plants. He said the oil industry is conspiring with its allies to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture from funding the installation of pumps at gas stations capable of blending higher levels of ethanol into gasoline. House Takes Action On Capitol Hill, where the biofuel mandates originated, members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee are drafting an amendment to address the problems that have surfaced with the biofuels mandate. House leaders plan on conducting hearings on the topic later this year. Vilsack’s comments, however, strongly suggest any legislative revision of the biofuels mandate would face a near-certain presidential veto. “The biofuel mandates subsidize the U.S. corn farmer at the expense of livestock producers and American consumers,” said Daniel Simmons, director of state policy at the Institute for Energy Research. “It is a disgrace that Secretary Vilsack supports policies that drive up food and fuel prices in exchange for subsidies for special-interest groups,” Simmons added. Bonner R. Cohen, Ph. D. ( bcohen@nationalcenter.org ), is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research. Continue reading
Active Energy Says Wood Chip Shipments Dipped But Remains Positive
Wed, 9th Oct 2013 10:33 LONDON (Alliance News) – Active Energy Group PLC Wednesday said the amount of wood chip it shipped in the three months to September 30 declined compared with the three months ended June 30. In a trading update the biomass fuel provider said it shipped 50,000 metric tonnes of wood chip between July and September, down from 57,000 metric tonnes between April and June, of which 38,000 metric tonnes was subject to a profit-sharing arrangement with Nikofeso Holdings Limited, a biomass exporter it acquired in June. Active said the third quarter shipments have generated gross revenue of USD5.3 million for the group and “reflect positively in the context of a clearly growing market opportunity”. The company plans to ship up to 350,000 metric tonnes of wood chip a year on Black Sea markets by the end of 2015, with a similar quanta of cargoes of power plant feedstock shipped to European clients. The entire volume shipped in the third quarter was for biomass feedstock to customers in Southern Europe, while shipments to clients engaged in medium-density-fibreboard manufacture in the Black Sea region are expected to resume in the fourth quarter in parallel with continuing biomass shipments. The company expects to release its results for the year ended December 31 in March or April 2014. Active shares were trading at 2.65 pence Wednesday, up 0.15 pence or 6.0% By Anthony Tshibangu; anthonytshibangu@alliancenews.com; @AnthonyAllNews Continue reading