Apal

Couleur lavande

Florence ETIENNE — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 16:53:50 +0000

Lavender color Florence ETIENNE Mon, 02/15/2016 - 16:53

Photo : Steffen LIPP

Blue, violet, mauve, even lilac, Such are the colors of lavender and lavandin, the emblematic vegetal species growing in hills and plateaus from Valence to Gap, from Alès to the Gorges of Verdon and to the Vésubie River.

Lavenders and lavandins define a most particular region by their presence and represent the eternal symbol of Provence. They thrive entirely in lands under azure skies in the midst of scrublands, thyme and genet, forming an aromatic and colorful countryside like no other. They impart a gracious setting of intoxicating fragrances to plateaus of Rhodanian, Alpine and Mediterranean basins, a setting they share with their companions – the mistral, bees, cicadas and the insects of the sun.

* Source : "Lavandes Lavandins Parfum d'histoire" by Robert Veyan

Fields of lavender plants sway in the wind like waves on the sea where each tiny flower delivers its miniscule role of sensory treasure as they let themselves be rocked lovingly, opening up naturally to foraging bees who carry life’s nectar on their legs .

Their histories, their aptitudes for implantation in dry areas, their abilities to produce the essential oils exploited by growers and used by others in downstream markets provide lavender with a favorable position and some revenue for a number of producers in southern France. This culture thereby participates in the sustainable development of the territory and in maintaining a population necessary for the livelihood of an entire region.
The blue colors of the sky, lavender and lavandins, the greens of vegetation and olive groves and the light pink blossoming almond trees represent a veritable invitation to travel to Provence.

Photo : Steffen Lipp

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Production et développement durable

Florence ETIENNE — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 17:45:10 +0000

Production and sustainable development Florence ETIENNE Mon, 02/15/2016 - 17:45

Photo Steffen Lipp

Lavender growers and the Minister of Agriculture, Michel Barnier, signed a joint charter for sustainable development during the first “Planète Durable” (Sustainable Development) Conference in Paris on April 10, 2008.

This charter has three dimensions: social, economic and environmental.

All lavender cultivation methods are now entered as part of this charter.

Despite various pressures on them over the years, lavender growers made the unequivocal decision via this charter to counter the trend towards increased productivity using lavender clones and more intensive cultivation which generates more pollution.

Because they live so close to nature, Fine Lavender growers know just how fragile lavender in all its beauty can be.
It is quite natural that they have undertaken this commitment to take an active role in its conservation.

For decades, lavender and lavandin have been two emblematic and traditional cultivations in Provence

Photo : Steffen Lipp

Until the 20th century, the lavenders were gathered; however, as their multiple benefits became more appreciated, lavenders have since been cultivated.

Production of Lavenders of Provence is located solely in:
- 4 departments – The Drôme, Alpes de Haute Provence, Hautes-Alpes, Vaucluse;
- 20 000 acres under cultivation;
- 2 000 growers and about 25 000 related workers;
- 120 distilleries of which 30 are open to visitors.

Lavender occurring spontaneously in the hills and under cultivation in Provence has several names: true lavender, fine lavender, or population lavender all designating the same plant having the Latin name "lavandula angustifolia P. Miller".
A particular lavender may have been selected to improve its vigor, its essential oil yield or for the intense blue color of its flower. The plant selected for its qualities is reproduced identically (cloned).
This plant is referred to as clonal lavender.

While fine lavender is cultivated by planting seeds, clones are reproduced using cuttings.
Cuttings produce a plant that will have the same characteristics as its parent.
In a cultivated parcel planted in fine lavender, each plant is genetically different from its neighbor and the plantation will have a very heterogeneous aspect. Colors and sizes of these plants vary highly. Lavender essential oil has a richer fragrance and a well-balanced composition.

* Source : ONIPPAM
Mr Francis Vidal, Lavander grower at Mévouillon, Drôme.

Only it can use the PDO label..

Lavender Production

Lavender cultivation provides a way to make use of the poor, stony agricultural lands found in dry mountainous regions from 600 to 1200 meters altitude where it would be very difficult to grow other plants given the altitude and the arid nature of the climate.

Lavender is a perennial plant that can be cultivated for about ten years.

It flowers in July and harvesting is done around July 14th depending on altitude and conditions during the year.
The main production zone for lavender essential oils is on the Albion Plateau and in districts of the eastern Vaucluse, southern Drôme, northern Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Hautes-Alpes.
The area under fine and clonal lavender cultivation has increased progressively since 1994 as a result of the Lavender Revival Program. Before then, production had been in slow decline.

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L'AOP en quelques questions

Florence ETIENNE — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 10:34:26 +0000

PDO in a few questions Florence ETIENNE Mon, 04/11/2016 - 10:34

Why PDO?

Q : Why the PDO label for this lavender ?

A : Because the consumer and small business users typically have no way of identifying the origin and quality of lavender essential oil that is not PDO.

Very often, one finds products imported, made from lavandin or reconstituted using synthetic ingredients that are sold commercially under the name "Lavender Essential Oil”.

These practices are intended to lower prices at the expense of quality.
Equally concerned are a number of products using “Lavender Essential Oil” in their formulas.
Even the AFNOR, ISO or European Pharmacopoeia standards can be easily circumvented.

Q : Which lavender can display the PDO label ?

A : Exclusively the Augustifolia P. Millerlavender , also called “true-”, “fine-” or “population-” lavender coming only from traditional cultures.

Clones are excluded.

Q : To what does the PDO label apply ?

A : PDO applies to essential oil (also called “essence”) obtained by steam stripping the flowering tops of lavender in the various distilleries spread within the production zones.

To qualify for the PDO label, these essential oils must :
• come from the zones enclosed by four producing departments, at a minimum altitude of 800 meters :
- Drôme,
- Vaucluse,
- Alpes de Haute Provence,
- Hautes Alpes,
• the product must pass a double series of tests: analytical and olfactory (the individual batches are sampled and examined under anonymity).

Q : How is issued PDO label ?

A : The certificate of PDO approval, now called “Certificate of Conformity”, is issued by APAL after verification by the regulatory organizations. It is the only one that guarantees product traceability and traditional quality.

The PDO is especially sought for:
Prestigious perfumes
Cosmetics
Pharmacy
Phytotherapy
Aromatherapy
Aromacology

To qualify for the PDO label, lavender essential oil of Haute-Provence must meet the upper criteria.

NB - the French language version of this site prevails for interpretation issues

* Analytical citeria for the definition of PDO lavender essential oils

In order to read official rules :
- Decree of October 24, 1997 relating to the protected designation of origin for lavender essential oil of Haute Provence - Official Journal 254 of October 31, 1997
Read the PDF file

- Decree of October 24, 1997 concerning the approval of essential oils benefiting from the appellation of origin "lavender essential oil of Haute-Provence" - OJ Number 254, October 31, 1997
Read the PDF file

- The Order of September 11, 1998 concerning the authorization of laboratories issuing certificates of physical-chemical analyses for obtaining the protected designation of origin "lavender essential oil of Haute-Provence" – O.J. No. 217 September 19, 1998
Read the PDF file

- Appendix
Read the PDF file

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Lavande Bio

Florence ETIENNE — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 12:58:33 +0000

Bio Lavender Florence ETIENNE Mon, 04/11/2016 - 12:58

Bio Lavender VS P.D.O. Lavender

Responding to increasing demand for this type of essential oil in the field of Aromatherapy and Aromacology, the producers have made arrangements to produce certified essential oils.
In fact, this certification is a sign of the producers’ seriousness to foreign buyers.

PDO Lavender meets the obligations of botanical origin, traceability, balance of components, and olfactory qualities, all clearly defined in the declaration concerning the PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) label.

The PDO label protects the designation "lavender essential oil of Haute Provence" and is the only one existing in France for lavender.
Except PDO lavender certification, other products are prohibited from using labels resembling it, or references to its territory.

“Bio lavender” guarantees production methods: no pesticides or other chemicals should be used.
It is guaranteed by the logo “AB” and is not constrained to a defined geographical area.
Lavender may be Bio and PDO labeled. A small tonnage of PDO Bio lavender is produced.
In this case, origin, botany and all other guarantees under the PDO label, including the olfactory qualities, are additional assets.

But even in traditional cultivation, lavender receives little or no pesticides.
Indeed, the plant deterioration disease transmitted by the leafhopper (insect) which decimated many plantations is not subject to any treatment, as no product has been successful to date.

Commentaires

Interst in lavandula angustifolia P. miller oil

Hello,
I am interested in 25 kg of lavandula angustifolia P. miller oil convetional and bio. Can you send me EXW price for 25 kg?
Kind regards
Jan Fiala
FICHEMA, Czech Rep.

email address

Hello, could you please contact us using contact page, in order to send us your email address.
Read you later
Best reagrds,
Florence

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La lavande en danger - Pétition

Florence ETIENNE — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 20:03:13 +0000

Endangered lavender - Petition Florence ETIENNE Mon, 04/11/2016 - 20:03

Help save lavender, aromatic and medicinal plants

A petiion is going on on Avaaz in order to save lavender !
Then help us, sign this peittion, we need you!

Save us, save lavender, Sign this petition

Lavender and other aromatic and medicinal plants along with their extracts have been used throughout history and form part of our common heritage. Their benefits have been proven over thousands of years.

Today, under European regulations, these natural products have been placed in the same category as man-made chemical products and as such they are subject to restrictions which in practice make it impossible to continue their use.

The only ones to benefit from this situation are the chemical industries who will have free reign to substitute their synthesised chemical products for the natural products. This will be detrimental to consumers’ health and at the cost of the disappearance of rural and agricultural lands.

Don’t let them get away with this!

Help us defend the cause and save these plants and their uses. By signing this petition, you will contribute to the preservation of natural products, those who cultivate them, and the environment they are cultivated in.

For more details and information, see the sites listed below:
PPAM de France (Aromatic and Medicinal Plant Professionals Union)
Facebook

We will never accept the unacceptable !

To The President of the European Commission

We, citizens of the world, ask you not to treat lavender and other aromatic and medicinal plants as well as their traditional extracts as chemical products. We say NO to European regulations which are irrelevant to and destructive of natural products. We ask that these products be accorded a specific status in relation to their production and use.

Read the complete file : dossier-reach.pdf

Commentaires

oui sauvons lavande …

oui sauvons lavande ensemble

et non la lavande, N'est pas un produit chimique.

PETITION

BONJOUR
IL FAUT TOUJOURS SE BATTRE AVEC CES POLITQUES DE MERDE LA POLUTION CLIMAT ECOLOGIES DESERBENT ANGRAIS ETC/ . LE PIRE CET ESSENCE DIESEL KEROZENE AVIONS ETC .QU ILS COMMENCE PAR CA PAS PAR NOS MERVEILLEUSE LAVANDE ET SON PARFUM CES BIENFAIT NATUREL
CORDIALEMENT
ANDREE

Bonjour…

Bonjour
Je suis une très grande amatrice de l'huile essentielle de lavande, pour toutes ses vertus pour les petits et les gros bobos : piqûre d'insecte, brûlure, douleur et bien d'autres encore. je m'en sert également comme parfum d'ambiance.
quel bonheur de rentrer dans une maison ou un appartement qui embaume la lavande
Que dire des champs de lavande fin juin début juillet, un si beau paysage de bleu ensoleillé.
Depuis 1995 je passes mes vacances dans la région du Vaucluse, Luberon et les Alpes de Hautes Provence, et tous les ans je ramène mes mes huiles essentielles et autres produits, d'excellente qualité.
Tous ces "costumes cravates" devraient s'occuper des vrais problèmes, plutôt que d'essayer d'en trouver là ou il n'y en a pas.

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Les parfumeurs s'insurgent

Florence ETIENNE — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 20:29:20 +0000

Perfumers rebel against Florence ETIENNE Mon, 04/11/2016 - 20:29

Raymond CHAILLAN

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEBATE

New synthetic drugs have still not been classified, but we can buy them freely and legally in shops or on the Internet and these have been killing dozens of young consumers in an astonishing indifference, for years. The guilty silence is deafening.
Killed by the million, victims of insecticides, neo-nicotinoids, bees have been disappearing; the natural balance of pollination is being jeopardized by the disappearance of beekeepers.
Pesticides can be found everywhere in our food, -dangerous, carcinogenic sometimes. Parabens, biphenols are still there. Bah!

And in a joyous mess where the absurdity does not seem to bother anyone, we see and hear everywhere, in newspapers, on television, on the radio, people glorifying and promoting essential oils as natural and organic. In aromatherapy, aromacology, their benefits are listed one by one, their soothing qualities here, and there, the bacterio-static properties. How to energise the water in the baby’s bath, early-morning rubs, gels and massage creams, and everyone has to add his little contribution: We remember Egypt, Ancient Greece, the essence of rose or jasmine, used on the hair or for the body, in royal bedchambers, the water demanded by the Queen of Hungary and the use of rosemary, the Cologne water used by Napoleon and its essence of orange, bergamot, lemon, Eau de Cologne Imperial by Guerlain ...
In the kitchen, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, tarragon, cloves, nutmeg, even worse cinnamon, lemon, orange, tangerine tarts, candy, or biscuits flavoured with lavender (can be fatal if swallowed or if breathed in...) mugwort liqueurs, lozenges with pine, eucalyptus, mint essence, etc ... what have we found? Essential oils contain allergens. They are the source of all our ills.
Allergies, of course, but also asthma, melanoma, various irritations, perhaps cancer etc ...
Endocrinological disorders, exhaust pipes and air pollution, pesticides, peanuts ... etc ?
All of these are marginal. Forget about their dangers.

So poison, then. But, of course, it is the essence of lavender: a dangerous product which must be kept far out of the reach of children (wash thoroughly after handling), distillers around their stills, perfumers and their assistants in the laboratories – can they all be wearing astronaut suits?
But then, what about the products sold in pharmacies for fumigations as treatment of respiratory diseases, or lung diseases with thyme, lavender, cinnamon, cloves, etc.,? Cream balms and massage oils with essences of thyme, lavender, melaleuca, or peppermint ... ?
Also dangerous for the skin, citrus essences with their limonene, citral, linalool, geraniol, just like the essence of orange blossom that some use to flavour cakes.
It is no longer 26 but 179 allergens that are at present covered by the SCCS. Drastic restrictions or prohibitions, there is now talk of ppm.
What is happening is serious. We have lost all sense.
Europe has become Nonsense land, The King has lost his marbles!
This new directive will announce the death of the plantations of lavender, of hybrid lavender, and the sage from the southeast of France this agriculture of the dry mountains that governments have helped in the recent past, with subsidies ... often from Europe. It will wipe from the map the orchards of Sicily, Calabria,and the Maghreb, the last rose gardens of the south of France, Bulgaria, Turkey, Morocco, the fields of jasmine, or geraniums.
It will further reduce the perfumers' palette, limiting their creativity. The tyranny of computer software will render all creative research vain by imposing uniformity, and mediocrity. Think of new fragrances without natural products, the disappearance of many old and trusted ingredients heralding the triumph of synthesis and its supremacy.
Europe has given in this area one of the greatest ever examples of destruction.It will have sealed the fate of the French luxury perfume industry and its unique reputation in the world.
But what does that matter when India and China are opening schools of perfumers, building factories, museums , planting lavender, and hybrid lavender, and buying the essences of ylang ylang we can no longer use.
Europe will have succeeded in destabilizing a thriving industry that generates millions of jobs in the world and billions of euros for our economy. Do we want 950,000 more people unemployed?
We do not understand, we are incapable of understanding such a level of inconsistency, such determination against our own side, this unfair frenzy of dismantling, but we cannot fathom either such silence, such torpor on the part of the producers and the industry.
It was in fact during the presidency of Mrs. Nicole Fontaine that the report on "ingredients of perfumes, a danger to the health of consumers in Europe" was initiated.

How is it possible that we could just stand by and accept without hesitation that essential oils could be considered a mixture of chemical molecules: limonene, pinene, geraniol, linalool, iso-eugenol, citral, coumarin, etc ... and that the distillers of lavender and other essential oils be termed manufacturers when they simply extract from flowers, leaves, fruit, etc...
Or else stop talking to us about Nature and what is natural! And is it linalool or oxidized linalool? patch-testing? thresholds used?
Is there no longer any voice to be heard?
And all this because 1%, perhaps 2% of the population might be really allergic?

The lavender growers and their fields decimated by the leafhopper fields did not need this latest trick.
Every member of the perfume, cosmetics, or aromatherapy industry must unite (how discouraging it is to have to repeat this again) to end the mass suicide organized and programmed for over 20 years, due once more to Brussels.

Raymond CHAILLAN
Ingénieur ENSIA
Honorary President of the French Society of Perfume Producers

Lire le dossier complet : dossier-reach.pdf

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Calendrier des évènements autour de la Lavande

Florence ETIENNE — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 15:06:38 +0000

Fairs and events dedicated to lavender Florence ETIENNE Thu, 04/14/2016 - 15:06

If you wish that an event appears on this page, don't hesitate to contact us on "contact" page in inder to tell it to us...

Apal

Couleur lavande

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Production et développement durable

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L'AOP en quelques questions

Why PDO?

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Lavande Bio

Commentaires

Interst in lavandula angustifolia P. miller oil

email address

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La lavande en danger - Pétition

Commentaires

oui sauvons lavande …

PETITION

Bonjour…

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Les parfumeurs s'insurgent

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEBATE

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Calendrier des évènements autour de la Lavande

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