An Afghan company recently started exporting essential oils made from rose petals and orange blossoms for the foreign perfume industry.

The export company said the oil which they send abroad is processed and at least 10,000 bottles are made up from each liter of pure oil.

The Afghan firm sends the essential oil to a Canadian company.

“The Orzala company in Jalalabad makes perfume from orange, rose and other flowers. We sell damascene and orange blossom water to The 7 Virtue (company) and then they are sold in different stores of Sephora (a French chain of cosmetic stores),” said Abdullah Arsala, head of Orzala Naturals.

“We extract one liter of essential oil from one ton of flowers and besides that the perfume water is sent to a laboratory and used in aromatherapy and as different perfumes,” he added.

The perfume has a good market in the country as well, shopkeepers said.

“Our perfumes are natural and pure. They don’t have chemicals. That is why people like them. We encourage people to use these perfumes,” said Akhtar Mohammad, a perfume seller in Kabul.