A small local community nestled at the base of the Amathola Mountains in South Africa is building its resources to create a better future. Qobo Qobo Essential Oils, a rural nonprofit social enterprise from the Siyakhokwa Group, launched their small-scale Indigenous Oils Programme in 2006.

Since then, Qobo Qobo has formed 10 autonomous farmer units to cultivate Rose Geranium, Cape Chamomile, and Wild Rosemary in Keiskamahoek, Eastern Cape, in collaboration with the South African Breweries Foundation.

Read more about their pure Rosemary Essential Oil below:

Rosemary

The name "rosemary" comes from the Latin words "ros" (dew) and "marinus" (sea), which means "dew of the Sea." It is a fragrant herb, native to the Mediterranean, and in the Medieval Ages, it was thought to be able to ward off evil spirits and even stop the bubonic plague from spreading.

Rosemary oil may help enhance memory and act as a mental stimulant. Rosemary oil, when diluted and applied topically, has been shown to promote hair development, ease pain, and inflammation, stop migraines, boost the immune system, and condition hair so that it looks and feels healthy.

How It's Grown

Rosemary thrives in sandy loam soil with a pH range of 6 to 7.5 and good drainage. To help with water drainage away from the roots in heavy soil, the plant rows are ridged. In temperate areas, rosemary is a hardy evergreen plant that thrives in temperatures between 18°C and 26°C. It’s also very frost-hardy and can survive as low as -12°C! At Qobo Qobo, Rosemary is planted once and then re-harvested over the next 8 to 10 years.

Harvesting & Distilling

The shrubs are cut, and the leafy twigs are brought to distilleries where they are blasted with steam to release the essential oil, which is then filtered on-site. A plant’s location in the world determines the chemotypes that it produces; Qobo Qobo’s Rosemary, grown in South African soil, produces Verbenone.

Currently, 60 hectares of rosemary are grown in Qobo Qobo, providing between 480,000 and 500,000 tons of biomass annually. Three times a year, they gather produce from their own fields and out-growers’ fields for two oil distillation operations, as well as to dry some of it for the carnosic acid market. The harvest is cut down, bagged, weighed, batched, and processed into dry rosemary or oil. Qobo Qobo aims to harvest three times annually, but depending on the weather and drying cycles may only harvest twice.

Caring for the Earth

Qobo Qobo has adopted a systems approach to sustainability in which the economic system, the socio-political system, and the ecological system are interconnected and then connected through the governance system, which legally secures all the other systems. Sustainable development requires the ongoing and mutually compatible integration of multiple systems across time.

Conclusion

In order to support their objective of becoming a financially successful grower and supplier of essential oils, Nature Packaged has partnered with Qobo Qobo in pursuit of this goal. Through continual innovation, the skilled workers of Qobo Qobo Essential Oils aim to deliver consistently high-quality oils that satisfy customers all around the world! Because of their high standards and agricultural conscientiousness, Nature Packaged is proud to partner with LISHA Trade.

To purchase Qobo Qobo's Rosemary Essential Oil, click here!