For over 140 years, Astier Demarest has favoured long-term partnerships and created sustainable and ethical supply chains for its exceptional ingredients. We have been working with SHEDAN for over 50 years to source Neroli essential oil and other Bigaradier products.
History
SHEDAN, Société des Huiles Essentielles et Dérivés d’Afrique du Nord, was founded in 1944 and specialises in the production of 100% pure and natural essential oils. The company began by distilling wild rosemary.
After the frost that hit the South of France in 1956, decimating the local bigarade trees, the perfumers of Grasse turned to Tunisia, and more specifically to Cap Bon, to secure their supplies of Neroli essential oil. Why did they do this? Because the Cap Bon region has a Mediterranean climate similar to that of south-east France, with large areas of cultivated bigarade trees, which were historically used for the local production of orange blossom water.
SHEDAN, Société des Huiles Essentielles et Dérivés d’Afrique du Nord, a été fondée en 1944 et est spécialisée dans la production d’huiles essentielles 100% pures et naturelles. La société a commencé par distiller du romarin sauvage.
Après le gel qui a frappé le Sud de la France en 1956, décimant les bigaradiers locaux, les parfumeurs de Grasse se sont tournés vers la Tunisie, et plus précisément vers le Cap Bon, pour s’approvisionner en huile essentielle de Néroli. Pourquoi ? Parce que la région du Cap Bon bénéficie d’un climat méditerranéen similaire à celui du sud-est de la France, avec de grandes surfaces de bigaradiers cultivés, historiquement utilisés pour la production locale d’eau de fleur d’oranger.
In 2008, SHEDAN became the first distiller of essential oils in Tunisia. The company still processes around a third of Tunisia’s orange blossom harvest.
In 2009, SHEDAN was awarded organic certification by ECOCERT. As the company continued to grow, a unit for extracting orange, petitgrain and jasmine absolutes was set up in 2015. Later that year, to meet the ongoing needs of companies in the sector, more than 4,500 bigarad trees were planted in the Nabeul region of Tunisia.
Over 50 years of partnership rewarded!
Since the start of its activity, SHEDAN has set up strategic partnerships with small local producers of bigarades in Cap Bon. These partnerships enable the Tunisian company to measure the traceability of agricultural raw materials, to ensure the stability of raw material supplies and to guarantee the quality of these supplies. Farmers then benefit from financial security to guarantee the sale of their products.
For several years now, SHEDAN has received Fair For Life certification for some of its products: Neroli – Orange Flowers Water – Orange Flowers Concrete – Oranger Absolute – Orange Flowers Water Absolute – Petitgrain – Brout Water Absolute and Petitgrain Absolute
