The pandemic has hit the perfume industry, and hence the rose oil business. In 2020, 40% of the rose crop remained unpicked. This year the situation is critical.

“We are on the verge of a zero year in rose production. A great many of the distilleries in the country say they do not intend to have a crop purchase campaign at all this spring. They do not have the financial resource to purchase and process rose flowers, and do not need to because they have obsolete stock which they are unable to market,” Hristo Nikolov, chair of the Professional Association of Rose Producers in Bulgaria commented for BNR-Stara Zagora. That is why they are calling for convening a consultative council on the oil-yielding rose.