Badr BENNIS, Les Arômes du Maroc's CEO
Based in Morocco, this world-renowned perfume supplier works with aromatic and medicinal plants and supplies essential oils and concentrates to the fragrance industry, as well as the food and cosmetics sectors. With its know-how in the production and extraction of aromatic plants, Les Arômes du Maroc is today a leader in orange products and in Rose Damascena. Les Arômes du Maroc is also producing its own beauty products based on Moroccan traditional know-how and natural ingredients.
For people who may not have heard of Les Arômes du Maroc how would you describe your company?
We are a long-time supplier to flavour and fragrance companies and have been working in this area for more than eight decades. We are pushed by the expertise of our parent company, Les Domaines Agricoles, the leading Agriculture company in Morocco, and have developed the production of aromatic plants across several regions of Morocco. It all began with a small orange blossom operation back in the 1930s! Today, we are constantly searching for new scents and developing different processes to extract these to make wonderful fragrances and flavours.
Since the company started 80 years ago, protecting biodiversity and supporting people whose livelihoods are based on it seem to have always been important for your company. Can you explain why?
Les Arômes du Maroc want to contribute to make the world of today and tomorrow more sustainable. Our vocation is to offer natural and prestigious products for the wellbeing of consumers in the respect of nature and humankind. Therefore, we focus on designing and launching solutions that allow us to develop access to natural botanicals, to preserve these precious resources and to renew them over time. Our responsibility to nature is a great one. Our power to act is just as important, and we act based on ensuring we have strong trust and cooperation that we have built among our employees, clients and the people we work with in the sourcing areas. We are committed to seeing value across several dimensions including financial, ethical, social, and environmental.
In terms of ethical sourcing of aromatic and medicinal plants in Morocco, what challenges do you face and how do you tackle them?
Our daily challenge is to combine our strengths with the skills of our suppliers to make full use of their sustainable development capabilities. This means that we expect our suppliers and their suppliers to comply with all applicable laws, but it also means that we expect them to go beyond regulations and to meet environmental, social and ethical standards. And we support them in that as we hold ourselves to these same standards.
How do you ensure Les Arômes du Maroc's work at the sourcing level is supporting local communities?
We have set social and community objectives and we put the resources in place to achieve them including the promotion of economic development of the local population through the creation of jobs, and the support of cooperatives for the retention of seasonal employees (such as pickers). With seasonal employees, we also work to build capacity through training opportunities.
Les Arômes du Maroc is present almost throughout the whole supply chain from processing the plants into essential oils to manufacturing cosmetics products under your Tiyya brand whose range of products is based on natural ingredients (Argan Oil, Prickly Pear Oil, orange blossom, rose). Does being present from harvesting to the final product make it easier or more difficult for your company to check that natural ingredients are ethically sourced?
While it can seem more complicated, it actually makes it much easier. Our presence from harvest to the final product allows us to better control our supply chain and ensure the responsibility and quality of all our inputs from upstream to downstream of our value chain.
Les Arômes du Maroc became a UEBT member in 2019. What is the strategic importance of working with UEBT for your company?
It is an approach that aligns perfectly with our values and commitments! It is also a means to achieve our sustainability goals and ensure continuous improvement to our sourcing system.
Badr BENNIS, Les Arômes du Maroc's CEO
