ROSE-OIL PRODUCTION AND TRADE

The name Rose Valley is emblematic and collective for two Valleys - Karlovo and Kazanlak, and some regions in the south of Sredna Gora Mountain around Hissar, Strelcha, Stara Zagora and Nova Zagora and others, which produce over 80% of the rose-oil in the country.
The first documents claiming presence of rose plantations within the borders of present Bulgaria date back to 1712, and they refer to the territory of Voynyagovo village. In later records the whole Karlovo region from Klissura to Kalofer was mentioned. Growing oil-bearing rose in the Rose Valley is due to the favourable climatic conditions.
Planting new rose gardens is done in autumn, after the Michaelmas (Archangel’s day - 29th September) in October and November. The rose garden gives flowers for distillation (boiling and extracting the rose-oil and other products) at the third year.
One of the most essential conditions for good flourishing of the oil-bearing rose is the heavy rainfalls through spring months- May and June, because “at that period the greatest amounts of rose-oil are given by the Gyul - oil-bearing rose”.
The rose-picking season starts from the first half of May and continues to the middle of June. The rose-picking itself starts early in the morning (at dawn) at 4 o’clock and usually finishes at about 10. According to an old folk custom the first rose blossom picked up is put in the hair, over the picker’s ear, for decoration. The rose flowers which are picked up in the afternoon lose about 50% of their rose-oil content.
A lot of legends and debates about the beginning of the rose-oil production with the use of the distilling method (over-boiling of rose-water) could be found. In the Middle Ages in India, people started using copper distillers and small amounts of rose-oil, costing much, were produced through a single distillation method.
In their centuries-old practice, using the experience gained in the rakiya (brandy) production, Bulgarian rose-growers invented and brought in use a number of improvements in the rose-oil production process using the double distillation method. Consequently, not only the quantity of the extracted rose-oil was increased, but also its fine fragrance and irreplaceable qualities were preserved. As a result, the Bulgarian rose-oil and rose-water gradually replaced the Kashmiri and Arabian ones on the market.
The amount of produced rose-oil is measured by a special unit for weighing called muscal, which was taken from the Arabs and means “weigh” in Bulgarian. One muscal equals 4.9844 grams or approximately 5 grams. Later on, small amounts of rose-oil were sold in the so called “muscals”- glass bottles with capacity of 1, 2, 3 or 5 grams. In 1800 in Klissura, the beginning of the rose-oil production was documented. The processing of the rose-flowers is made in small copper distillers  installed under a shed. The extracted Rose-oil was stored in “konkums” - tin-plated copper vessel. Copper distillers were first used to produce rose-oil by people from Karlovo.
In 1852 in the region 300000 muscals of rose-oil were produced which equals 1500 kilograms. To extract 1 kg of rose-oil, about 3000-3500 kilograms of rose-flowers are needed. Consequently, for producing 1 muscal of rose-oil, 7000 to 15000 rose-flowers have to be picked up. 1 kg of rose-water is received from 1 kg of rose-flowers.
Rose-oil trade started to develop more intensively and export to Odrin, Tsarigrad, France and England was was increasing. The rose-producing region of Karlovo began to gain more influence than the one of Kazanlak.
Hristo and Nikola Pulevi from Karlovo were among the first Bulgarian export merchants of rose-oil at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1839, Evlogi Georgiev also joined the rose-oil trade. He did business with E. Panitsa in Vienna and Leopold Beng in Paris.
“Geshovi Brothers”company from Karlovo and “Totyu Stanchev – Mihaylov and Sie” founded in Manchester became famous Bulgarian exporters of rose-oil in England.
Cheshmedzhievi Brothers who produced and bought up rose-oil were agents of the German company “Imsen” in Karlovo.
Building rose-distilleries was undertaken not only by local rose merchants but also by Kazanlak companies and foreign industrialists.
The Frenchmen Pierre Sher and Sharl Garnier were among the first who invested in the Rose Valley. Afterwards, a process of attracting and assimilating foreign capitals from England, Germany, Austria and many other countries followed. By the year 1927, 38 rose-distilleries and 23 private companies had been created. As a result, traders from the Rose Valley significantly enlarged their trade activity abroad, for example, “B. Mitov – S. Dzhudzhev” Rose-trade House. Except its representatives in Bulgaria, the company had offices in Paris, London, New York, Berlin, Moscow, Vienna, Cannes and Grasse.
The high-quality Bulgarian rose-oil brought a lot of gold medals and diplomas from the world famous exhibitions and fairs in Antwerp, London, Paris, Liege, Milan and many others.
The new, modern rose-distilleries which were built after 1900 in the region stimulated the processes of rose-gardens enlargement and the increase in rose and rose-oil production. Karlovo region became the leading one in the field of the rose industry in the country.
The areas planted with roses reached 38 220 decares, from which 7 483 367 kg of rose-flowers were produced.
During the great economic crisis in the 30s of the last century, the rose plantations in the region were almost destroyed.
After the end of the Second World War, the Bulgarian government undertook a national policy for recovering and development of the rose-gardens in the Rose Valley. Special decrees were issued in the years 1956, 1957 and 1960. The equipment and facilities in the factory “Bulgarian Rose”- Karlovo / under the supervision of Pharmahim at that time / were modernized. New sorts of roses were created. For example, the sort “Svezhen”, which was created in Karlovo, gives about 750 kg of rose-flowers a decare in the 6th year.
Today the biggest producer of products made on the basis of oil-bearing rose and mainly rose-oil in the region is “Bulgarian Rose” PLC – Karlovo.