Dard-e-sar ke vaaste
chandan lagaana hai mufeed,
Uss ka ghissna aur lagaana
dard-e-sar yeh bhi to hai
[Sandalwood paste is the ideal cure for a headache,
(But) its preparation and application is a headache in itself!]
That Urdu couplet best encapsulates Kannauj’s long-standing love affair with sandalwood oil and attar (perfume). Situated along the mighty Ganga in Uttar Pradesh, Kannauj is one of the oldest cities in the country. In its heyday, it was regarded as the Grasse of the East, after the French town famous as the perfume capital of the world.
Ironically, India will soon begin buying sandalwood oil of the indigenous variety grown in Australia.
“Indian sandalwood oil is priced at Rs. 65,000 per kilo which is easily twice the price of sandalwood oil from Australia and three times the price of African sandalwood oil. Selling such a product at a global level is impossible,” rues Kapoor. On top of that, it takes inordinately long to get an export licence. The first set of export licenses were issued in 1998, almost two years after the first auction.
Of the 5 percent attar produced as personal fragrance, almost all is exported to West Asian countries like Saudi Arabia.
An evergreen aroma
Traditionally, all attars were sandalwood-oil based because of the unique ability of sandalwood oil to lose its own mild fragrance and absorb another. The other reason for its use is the remarkable stability it provides to the perfume. It is generally held that well-made attar based on sandalwood oil would smell just the same even after 100 years.
(This story appears in the 14 August, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Thanks to FORBES Iam farming sandal plantations Give us the polices of the govt Farming methods
on Oct 10, 2013What is the current availabity of sandal wood oil and difference in quality of oil. What is the Market share and pricing.
on Feb 20, 2013what is the process of selling raw sandal wood ?
on Dec 21, 2012i m very much intrested to know more about chandan
on Nov 22, 2011The total & calculated FORBES Thanks you are there
on Jul 16, 2011Forests and anything connected with trees are still regarded as holy cows even in this liberal era. Draconian sandalwood tree laws have led to the decimation of sandalwood trees. The farmer who grew sandalwood trees was made liable for the safety of his trees and penalised if the trees were stolen, moreover the sandalwood tree automatically became the property of the government once mature, so where is the incentive to grow sandal wood? farmers made sure no sapling of sandalwood grew on their lands, for they did not want trouble from the forest department. The same goes for rose wood which was one of our main exports until the ban on exports and ban on all felling in many states. The solution lies in exempting all private lands from the purview of all forest laws, then we will see corporatisation and commercial farm forestry of all our precious varieties of timber like sandalwood, rose wood, and commercial species for our paper and wood industries.
on Aug 14, 2009