The Comoros

The Comoros Archipelago consists of a group of islands off the South East coast of Africa, between Mozambique and Madagascar. It combines the Union of Comoros and Mayotte, French overseas collectivity.

The Comorian culture is rich from its people cross-fertilization: Comorian traditions derive from a mix of Arabic, African and Indian influences.

The archipelago is the world’s 1st producer of Ylang-Ylang essential oil, the « flower of flowers ».

A committed creator

"When I was a little girl, I discovered the fields, nature’s scents, aromatic herbs and wild plants. Once a week, my brothers, sisters and I would go for cloves picking, as they were plentiful on the island. All the way along the path, we would smell the delightful scents of lemongrass, wild mint and cloves. But the one that impressed me the most was the Ylang-Ylang flower sumptuous scent. These flowers that were carefully kept in safes by famous fragrance houses like Guerlain, we could pick them in their glorious freshness, as the sun was raising. This memory stays engraved in my heart."

Wassilati Mbae was born on the island of Grande Comore, arrived in France at the age of 14 and now lives in paris. She has been actively fighting for local development and for the preservation of the Comorian environment, through the promotion of Ylang-Ylang, applying sustainable farming and production methods.

By raising consciousness about environmental issues amongst Grande Comore island producers and by implementing training programs, she has managed to limit such unfortunate ecological imbalances as the ones occuring on neighbouring islands (overexploitation, dried-out rivers, deforestation).

She has also been working on regrouping local small producers in a Comorian cooperative, to guarantee a fairer reward for their work, and to pave the way for the organic certification of their essential oil. Indeed, even if all organic farming criteria have been applied, in the growing as well as in the extraction (see essential oil), the very small size and the geographical distance between the many exploitations prevent the access to such certification.

Recognized quality and ethics

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