Road to Damask: a grand old man of Iranian enterprise talks to Michael Griffin about his life and his latest venture—organic rose essence for the high-end cosmetics market

Middle East, The, July, 2006 by Michael Griffin

Twenty years on, Zahra Rosewater has become the processing and marketing arm of a semi-cooperative of over 500 rose growers with farms no larger than five acres. Since 2000, it has also enjoyed certification from Britain's Soil Association, making it one of the world's farthest-flung suppliers of guaranteed organic rose products. A major buyer is Wala in Germany, which uses Zahra rose oil in its Dr Hauschka line of skin-care products, but the market is increasing exponentially as western women abandon chemical products for natural, healthier formulations.

It takes four tonnes of rose petals to make one kilo of rose oil and farmers are paid $0.80 per kg of petals as well as a share in one third of the end-of-year profit. The remainder of Zahra's 600 tonne production is converted into rosewater, which is consumed in Iran, Iraq, the Middle East and the Gulf. Iran exported $12m worth of rose products in 2004/05, according to the Agriculture Ministry, mostly from Kerman, Fars and Isfahan provinces.

Sanati is currently consulting for the German NGO, Agro Action, which launched a pilot rose-growing project on 32 hectares in Nangarhar, Afghanistan in 2004 as part of efforts to find viable alternatives to the dominant poppy crop. Iran was a major producer of poppies until it was banned after the 1979 revolution, but it has the highest proportion of opiate addicts in the world, according to the UN World Drug Report 2005, with 4m regular users. Most rely on contraband supplies from Afghanistan and Sanati ruefully admits that smugglers killed in counter-narcotics operations fathered most of the children in his orphanage.

Ever the businessman, he provides a powerful argument for roses as one alternative to opium. "When it comes to agriculture in Europe, the economy is based on income per hectare of land. But land is not the limiting factor in Iran, Afghanistan or other Middle Eastern countries. It's water. If you cultivate a hectare of opium, you'll get about 30 kilos of opium at $300 per kg. That's $9,000. If you cultivate a hectare of roses, you get 6,000 roses and, if you water them properly, 1.5kg of rose oil, which will give you $7-8,000. That's still less than opium, but opium needs three times more water."