Challenges for perfumers in the 21st Century

Raw materials

The first situation that comes to mind is raw material shortages. It used to be that once in a while, maybe every few years; there would be a shortage of one material. Patchouli oil has been short several times, and the price tripled or even quadrupled. Then there was a shortage of grapefruit oil, as a result of the hurricane in Florida a few years ago. These were quite minor by comparison, and not difficult to deal with. But now...who could have predicted the geranium oil shortage? The difficulties this is causing companies, the price implications, the supply chain problems? And linalool, of all things? Linalool? It would have been almost inconceivable that such a bulk, commodity item, indeed one of the most commonly used materials of the entire perfumer’s palette, should go short. Nowadays, we are receiving memos from our buyer on practically a daily basis, telling us that materials are in short supply, difficult to obtain, or becoming extremely high-priced. I can create a fragrance in the morning and sometimes by that afternoon the raw material cost has increased by another 20%! I have been in the industry since the early 1980s and I have never known anything like this. The buyer’s job is becoming increasingly difficult - they say there is little to no material around, and what is around is often of high price and poor quality. Just this week in our QC panel, I evaluated a sample of citral that was the poorest example of any raw material I have seen during my working life. The instrumental analysis proved the sample was citral, but I could not detect the characteristic citral aroma.

Regulations