UCLA

A primary ingredient in many of the world’s most popular perfumes, ylang-ylang essential oil has long been a staple of the French perfume industry. Few know that the majority of the world’s supply of the coveted essential oil comes from the small Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Comoros, specifically the remote island of Ndzuani. The bulk of Ndzuani’s essential oil production occurs in small artisanal distilleries nestled in the island’s mountains. This artisanal system manages to outcompete and undercut other more efficient large centralized operations based on a traditional plantation system. During times of severe price collapse and crisis, only the artisanal system can produce. This thesis argues that it is the system’s strong roots in local kinship networks that allows it to continue production in times of crisis. Contrary to assumed economic rationality, the tendency of this system to disaggregate rather than concentrate, to decentralize rather than centralize, is more advantageous to the industry’s export capitalists.