Item Description

Frankincense

2022 Sourcing Impact

Total Lives Impacted: 646,022

People Empowered via Sourcing Jobs: 6,607

• Ethiopia: 4,555
• Oman: 24
• Somaliland: 2,028

Lives Supported by Sourcing Jobs: 33,287

• Ethiopia: 20,953
• Oman: 166
• Somaliland: 12,168

Lives Impacted through Social Impact Projects: 606,128

• Somaliland: 606,128

Why Oman, Somaliland, and Ethiopia?

Our Frankincense essential oil is a proprietary blend of four species of frankincense resin: Boswellia carterii, B. papyrifera, B. frereana, and B. sacra. Different frankincense trees thrive in different environments and soil types. For example, B. carterii trees grow best in sandy soils, while B. frereana trees grow best on dry, rocky terrain. B. frereana trees also produce the largest resin tears of the species.

We source from multiple locations to ensure we’re harvesting resin where each Boswellia species grows best—reducing environmental pressure on any single species.

The Production Process

Frankincense has been a highly valued commodity for millennia, dating back to ancient Egypt, Assyria, and more. The precious resin comprises the oldest global supply chain.

The essential oil comes from the resin tears of the frankincense tree. Harvesters typically make shallow cuts in the bark, from which resin seeps out. The resin is left for two weeks to crystallize into “tears,” which are then scraped off the tree. This process repeats over multiple weeks throughout the harvesting season. Resin tears are carefully cleaned and organized by size and color by women before distillation.

Our Frankincense essential oil comes from the Sanaag region of the Cal Madow Mountain range in Somaliland. Approximately a third of Somaliland’s population lives in this region, and frankincense harvesting is a main source of employment. The trees are passed down through generations, and harvesters have access to specific regions by tribal rite.

Normally, the resin is harvested, sold to shopkeepers (who then sell it to intermediaries and consolidators), and eventually exported. However, this system often takes advantage of the harvesters, who end up being paid the lowest wage for the hardest work.

In contrast, we go directly to the people who harvest and sort the resin. We’ve even contributed significantly to the construction of warehouses where the resin is collected, sorted, and stored (again, primarily by women), which provides important employment opportunities in these remote areas. These warehouses function like a cooperative, organizing harvesters and shopkeepers into a network.

Working at the source provides improved transparency, fairness, employment opportunities, and security for those participating in the supply chain and adding the most value. Our efforts are made possible by the Co-Impact Sourcing® traceability model.

People Empowered: Fair and On-Time Payments

Our Co-Impact Sourcing initiative for Frankincense essential oil provides harvesters with fair wages and on-time payments (including food and cash prepayments spread out during the year) by working directly with those who harvest and sort. This arrangement provides a stabler, more reliable income to harvesters.

Impact Stories: Environmental Stewardship

We’re also proud to support research and sustainability initiatives protecting frankincense trees through our Responsible Frankincense Strategy (RFS). Many frankincense trees have been overharvested, which means the trees have too many cuts or the cuts are too deep. As part of RFS, we’ve partnered with local universities in these sourcing countries and international organizations to carry out two initiatives.

First, traceability systems have been established to oversee harvesting and land management. Traceability includes identifying each harvested tree and monitoring its health status by evaluating depth and frequency of cuts.

In Somaliland, our research team is collecting GPS information for satellite imagery. In Ethiopia, overharvesting isn’t the primary threat to the longevity of frankincense trees; land conversion is. The solution is to propagate frankincense seedlings and cuttings in protected environments.

Nurseries for propagation are part of the second initiative. In Erigavo, the Frankincense Sustainability Research Center is a recently built nursery with two greenhouses. It’s an experimental site that evaluates optimal growing conditions for cuttings and seedlings.

In Oman, our sourcing partner runs the largest private frankincense nursery and plantation, with hundreds of trees ranging from four to eight years old and thousands of smaller trees now growing well. The research and initiatives we support ensure these trees and ecologies thrive and continue supporting communities and livelihoods.

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