JEDDAH, 13 October 2005 — Crowds of locals and tourists visited the Taif rose exhibition at Bahadur Hotel and Mall in Hada recently. Taif Governor Fahd ibn Muammar inaugurated the show, which also displayed a variety of rose products including rose water.
Businessman Khaleel Bahadur, who is a member of the National Committee for Tourism, Haj and Umrah, said the weeklong exhibition introduced visitors to a variety of natural rose products made in Taif. Visitors received attractive gifts including rose water and perfumes.
Abdullah Al-Ghareibi, who owns a flower distillation plant, explained how rose water and perfumes are produced through the distillation process. About 10,000 roses are put in 50 liters of water. The pot is then tightly sealed with a cover, which looks like a mushroom-shaped hat. This mix simmers for six hours. The steam collected goes through a tube that passes down through a pool of cold water and ultimately reaches a large glass jar called Arousa, where the rose water is collected.
At this point the droplets of attar are still dispersed in the rose water, so a second distillation takes place, in which the globules of attar rise to the surface as the liquid cools down. This allows their collection with a device similar to a syringe.
The attar collected in just one of these containers produces one single tola (about 11.7 grams) which, understandably, sells for between SR2,000 and SR3,000.
Hamoud Al-Qurashi, owner of a Taif rose farm, said roses are plucked early in the morning in the spring season. Farmers sell the flowers to rose distillation factories at the rate of SR20 to SR50 for 10,000 flowers. He estimated the value of a tola of rose perfume at SR1,000 to SR7,000, depending on its quality.
Taif factories produce more than 20,000 tolas of rose oil annually. About two million bottles of Taif rose water are produced every year, each selling for SR10. Under favorable conditions 35 million Shafa roses are distilled each season. Including the output from Hada, Taif perfumers produce an annual bounty of around 75 kilograms of pure oil each year.
