Tarlac's smallest town a big dot in global perfumery industry map

ANAO, Tarlac, Philippines – This town is Tarlac’s – and perhaps the Philippines’ – smallest, but it is a big dot on the map of the global perfumery industry.

The product that has placed it in the international scent market: Ilang-ilang, (scientific name: Oanaga odorata).

We once got detoured to this Central Luzon town on our way to the far Ilocos Norte town of Batac when an oil tanker fell on its side on MacArthur Highway, causing one of the worst traffic jams hereabouts in recent years.

We passed by Anao on to the north in a breeze. But what we did not miss were the thousands of ilang-ilang trees that mantled the town’s landscape.

“Here, the ilang-ilang essential oil business is everybody’s business,” the Los Baños-based Department of Science and Technology-Forest Products Research and developed Institute (DOST-FPRDI) once attested.

Records of this “Lilliputian” town show that Anao is home to about 10,000 ilang-ilang trees planted in its land area (public and private) of only 2,500 hectares.

“The Anao ilang-ilang oil is now accepted in the world market, having received a satisfactory rating from the Second Technical Mission of the CBI Export Development Programme for Natural Ingredients for Pharmaceutical and cosmetics,” FPRDI’s engineer Belen B. Disans once reported.

CBI, which is based in The Netherlands, stands for Centre for the Promotion of Imports for Developing Countries.

Anao’s ilang-ilang oil quality has also passed standards set by the Malaysian-based Plant Resources of Southeast Asia (PROSEA) and CBI.

“Passing the CBI standards smells sweet to the people of Anao. It brings them a step closer to their dream of conquering foreign markets with the fragrance of their home-grown oil,” FPRDI’s Rick Araral likewise continued.

To date, Anao has won three prestigious awards, two of which were for environmental protection and sustainable development, reported FPRDI officer-in-charge Felix B. Tamolang.

The town’s ilang-ilang industry took shape in 1989 when the local government unit (LGU) donated plantation lands and solicited help from various groups who gave technical and logistical support for its development.

The people, including many schoolchildren, planted and cared for the trees, harvested the flowers, and sold them to the LGU, which ran the essential oil extraction and distillation technology (EOEDT), a mchine developed by FPRDI using an old design.

The LGU, in turn, sold the oil to clients in Manila who used it in the becoming aromatherapy and personal care products industries.

FPRDI upgraded the EOEDT design in 2004, resulting in increase in the Anao LGU’s net profit by P1,300 per batch of flowers processed. The technology also improved the oil’s quality and yield, reduced the machine’s fuel and water consumption, and made the loading of flowers easier and safe.

The facility costs P437,000 (for building, equipment, and working capital) and can extract as much as 1.62 liters of oil per day. Depending on the grade, a liter sells from P5,000 to P10,000 each.

“The residents themselves say their lives have made a turn for the better – thanks to the town’s ilang-ilang Livelihood Program,” FPRDI researcher Petrito Q. Lontok noted.

As part of his thesis for his Master of Community Development which he completed in school year 2008-2009 at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), Lontok studied how Anao folk regarded the EOEDT. He interviewed 78 residents in two barangays as rate four aspects of the technology to check if, from their point of view, it really helped develop their community.

“In general,” Lontok observed, “the people see that the EOEDT brings them a wide range of benefits – it uses local skills and raw materials, is ecology-friendly, gives them equal opportunity to earn added income, promotes unity among them, and pushes their LGU to partner with relevant donor groups.”

He concluded: “although far from perfect, the ilang-ilang project has made Anao one inspiring municipality. It has been blest with a strong team of leaders, residents, and supporters who have succeeded in putting their hearts and hands together to maximize the researches of the land. The exciting thing is, this small town’s success can be replicated in other towns across the country, especially where other essential oil-producing plants – such as sampaguita, citronella, lemon grass, and pathceuli – grew.”