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Associated Press

Gloved and armed with shears, women weave through thorny brambles, clipping and tossing their harvest into wheelbarrows.
“Thank God for the rain,” said rose picker Fatima El Alami. “There are roses elsewhere, but there’s nowhere like here.”
She is right. Mild temperatures, steady sunlight and low humidity make the fields around Kalaat M’Gouna a perfect cradle for growing its signature flower: the Damask rose.
Abundant precipitation and several desert downpours this year have bestowed Morocco with an exceptional yield of the flower, used for rosewater and rose oil.


Pink and pungent, the roses are set to come in at 4,800 tonnes this year, a bloom far beyond the 2020-2023 average, according to the Regional Office for Agricultural Development, in nearby Ouarzazate.
The small town in the High Atlas mountains comes to life each year during the International Rose Festival, now in its 60th year. From the rose-shaped monuments at Kalaat M’Gouna’s entrances to the pink taxis, nearly everything here adheres to the theme.

Teenagers sell heart-shaped rose dashboard ornaments along the roadside where wild briars bloom into pink tangles. Children whirl around a rose-themed roundabout.
Roadside placards advertise rose products in at least six languages: English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Japanese and Amazigh, a tongue indigenous to the region.
Outside the town, rose cultivation spans 1,020 hectares (2,520 acres) this year. One hectare of roses provides more than 120 days of work in a local economy where opportunities are scarce.

Regional officials say the rose industry is a prime example of sustainable development because the flowers are well-adapted to the climate and rooted in the culture – music, dance and celebrations like weddings.
“Roses here are perfectly adapted to the region and to the conditions we’re living in now,” said Abdelaziz Ait Mbirik, director of the local Agricultural Development Office, referring to Morocco’s prolonged drought conditions.
The value of a kilogram of roses is five to six times higher than it was several years ago. And, unlike some other agricultural products that Morocco exports, Kalaat M’Gouna’s roses are largely grown by small-scale farmers and nourished with drip irrigation.

Though roses are broadly considered a lifeblood to the local economy, women toiling in the fields make an average of 80-100 Moroccan dirhams (US$9-US$11) a day during harvest season.
From the fields where they labour, the roses are bundled into potato sacks and sold to local distilleries like Mohammed Ait Hamed’s.
There, they are splayed onto tables, sorted and ultimately poured into copper cauldrons known as alembic stills, where they are steamed and filtered into fragrant water and precious oil.

The two are packaged into pink bottles, tiny glass vials or spun into soaps or lotions.
Long seen as a natural remedy for a variety of ails in Morocco, rose-based products are increasingly in high demand worldwide.
Rosewater and oil are often incorporated into perfumes, toners or facial mists and marketed for their sweet and soothing smell as well as their anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties.

Elixirs, tonics and balms were flying off the shelves last week at booths staffed by co-operatives from throughout the region. The demand has spurred officials to find ways to incentivise farmers to expand rose production in the coming years.
At the festival parade, as drummers tapped their sticks in cadence, Fatima Zahra Bermaki, crowned this year’s Miss Rose, waved from a float draped in petals.
She said she hoped the world could one day know the beauty of Kalaat M’Gouna and its desert roses. But amid the commotion, she remembered something: “The ladies who pick the flowers are the important ones in all of this. If they weren’t here, none of this would be,” she said.


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Tourism

60th International Rose Festival in Morocco celebrates Damask rose, lifeblood of a town

A worker places roses in a copper vessel before they are boiled. Photo: AP

Workers harvest roses on a farm in Kalaat M’Gouna, Morocco. The town  comes to life each May during the International Rose Festival. Photo: AP

Harvested roses before they are boiled to produce rose products in Kalaat M’Gouna, Morocco. Photo: AP

Workers at a women’s cooperative that produces rose-based products sort harvested roses. Photo: AP

A pink taxi on a roundabout during the annual Rose Festival in Kalaat M’Gouna, Morocco. Photo: AP

A view of Kalaat M’Gouna. Mild temperatures, sunlight and low humidity make the fields around the town a perfect cradle for growing the Damask rose. Photo: AP

Roses are dried on a rooftop in Kalaat M’Gouna. Photo: AP

Winners of the Miss Rose beauty pageant join a parade during the annual festival. Photo: AP

Saudi Arabian ‘city of roses’ where farmers bottle flowers’ aroma and climate change looms

A worker pours roses into a container used to produce rose water and oil, at a farm in Saudi Arabia’s western city of Taif. Photo: AFP

80-year-old rose farmer Khalaf Allah al-Talhi harvests flowers in Taif, Saudi Arabia. The petals’ aroma is extracted for use in perfumes and rose water. Photo: AFP

Khalaf Allah al-Talhi picks flowers alongside his workers on his plantation, where he says he cares for his roses “more than I care for my own children”. Photo: AFP

Freshly collected Damask roses on a farm in Taif. Every spring, roses transform pockets of Saudi Arabia’s desert landscape into fragrant pink patches. Photo: AFP

A worker pours roses into a container used to produce rose water and oil at a farm in Taif. Photo: AFP

Talhi collects rose oil distilled from the steam generated by boiling rose petals in vats. Photo: AFP

Workers harvest Damask roses at a farm in Saudi Arabia’s western city of Taif. Photo: AFP

Why the French can’t smell the roses: masks bloom among the flowers in perfume capital

A worker with a full bag of centifolia rose petals destined for Dior at Domaine de Manon in Grasse, southern France. Photo: Valery Hache/AFP

"Centifolia" or Provence, Cabbage Roses wait to be plucked for perfumery Christian Dior, at Domaine de Manon in Grasse, southern France, on May 14, 2020. - The Centifolia Rose is an emblematic flower fragrance of Pays de Grasse. The harvest of the flowers lasts from 4 to 6 weeks from May to early June, depending on weather conditions. In order to keep their freshness and fragrance, the flowers are plucked each day usually in the morning to be transformed into liquid form to help create Dior perfumes. (Photo by VALERY HACHE / AFP)

A worker inspects a bag during the picking of "Centifolia" roses for perfumery Christian Dior, at Domaine de Manon in Grasse, southern France, on May 14, 2020. - The Centifolia Rose is an emblematic flower fragrance of Pays de Grasse. The harvest of the flowers lasts from 4 to 6 weeks from May to early June, depending on weather conditions. In order to keep their freshness and fragrance, the flowers are plucked each day usually in the morning to be transformed into liquid form to help create Dior perfumes. (Photo by VALERY HACHE / AFP)

Workers gather with full bags during the picking of "Centifolia" roses for perfumery Christian Dior, at Domaine de Manon in Grasse, southern France, on May 14, 2020. - May roses are blooming in Grasse, the birthplace of French perfumes, but out in the fields, some of those who pick them face a problem this year. "Working with a mask and not smelling," the flowers, "is pretty frustrating," horticulturist Carole Biancalana acknowledges. (Photo by VALERY HACHE / AFP)

A worker picks "Centifolia" roses for perfumery Christian Dior, at Domaine de Manon in Grasse, southern France, on May 14, 2020. - The Centifolia Rose is an emblematic flower fragrance of Pays de Grasse. The harvest of the flowers lasts from 4 to 6 weeks from May to early June, depending on weather conditions. In order to keep their freshness and fragrance, the flowers are plucked each day usually in the morning to be transformed into liquid form to help create Dior perfumes. (Photo by VALERY HACHE / AFP)

A worker picks centifolia roses for Christian Dior at Domaine de Manon in Grasse, southern France. ‘Working with a mask and not smelling is pretty frustrating,’ says horticulturist Carole Biancalana. Photo: Valery Hache/AFP

Roses, henna, essential oil in India’s perfume capital: eighth-generation maker starts a scent tour in Kannauj, his hometown

Flower petals are distilled the same day they’re picked. Photo: Reem Khokhar 

Pranav Kapoor is an eighth-generation perfumer and chef who launched a perfume tour earlier this year to showcase his family’s 200-year-old legacy in the “perfume capital” Kannauj, in northern India. Photo: Pranav Kapoor

Rows of fragrant essential oils at the perfume bar, which visitors can use to create their own perfume, in Pranav Kapoor’s ancestral home in Kannauj, India. Photo: Reem Khokhar

A walk around Kannauj reveals crumbling mansions (above), an old fort and shops in an old bazaar. Photo: Reem Khokhar

A worker fluffs rose petals at the Kapoor family distillery in Kannauj. Photo: Reem Khokhar

Ram Singh (left) and his colleague load rose petals into a copper still to start the distillation process. Photo: Reem Khokhar.

The traditional deg-bhapka hydro-distillation process uses no electricity, thermometers or gauges, relying solely on the skill and intuition of the artisans. Photo: Reem Khokhar

As a chef and perfumer, Kapoor blends fragrance and flavour in lavish meals served to guests. Photo: Pranav Kapoor

Visitors blend fragrances at the perfume bar in Kapoor’s family distillery in Kannauj. Photo: Pranav Kapoor

Kannauj is India’s perfume capital, where attar – an essential oil – has been made for centuries. Flower petals are distilled the same day they’re picked. Photo: Reem Khokhar

Best apps for foreign visitors in China and which are useless – like Google Maps

WeChat and Alipay are the best apps for foreigners to download to use for payments in China since both began allowing users to link international cards to their payment systems. Photo: Getty Images

A customer makes an electronic Alipay payment on his smartphone to pay for his food at a restaurant in Beijing. Photo: AFP

An Alipay QR payment code (right, in blue) and a WeChat QR code (left, in green) are displayed at a street stall selling gadgets in Beijing for customers to scan to pay for items. Photo: AFP

A customer makes an electronic payment with Alipay on his smartphone for his food at a restaurant in Beijing. Photo: AFP

Lifestyle

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Fashion & Beauty

A bumper rose harvest is good news for the farmers of Kalaat M’Gouna, Morocco, which celebrates the Damask rose in an international festival


A bumper rose harvest is good news for the farmers of Kalaat M’Gouna, Morocco, which celebrates the Damask rose in an international festival.


Beauty

Morocco

Africa

60th International Rose Festival in Morocco celebrates Damask rose, lifeblood of a town

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A bumper rose harvest is good news for the farmers of Kalaat M’Gouna, Morocco, which celebrates the Damask rose in an international festival

A bumper rose harvest is good news for the farmers of Kalaat M’Gouna, Morocco, which celebrates the Damask rose in an international festival