The essential oils and oleoresins cover a very broad range of products, used primarily as flavours and fragrances, but many essential oils also have a long history of traditional usage as medicines and as food supplements to support good health, while some are also used as a feedstock to the chemicals industry. 

Oleoresins are a product of spice extraction (solvent extraction of the dried spice) and are primarily used in the food processing industry as their composition (flavour profile and strength) can be standardized.

Essential oils are distilled from every plant part, from leaves (geranium) to flowers (ylang ylang), to bark (cinnamon) and roots (vetiver). Whilst India and China are strongly associated with the production of many essential oils, the reality is that a very wide range of countries, from every continent, are involved as producers. Origins are a mix of the traditional (Comores for ylang ylang oil), to the new (Rwanda for geranium).

These are dynamic sectors with new origins entering the supply chain. Supplies to the markets for essential oils can be highly volatile; both prices and volumes. Demand for many essential oils is fixed (inelastic), and poor crops, due to adverse weather or environmental calamities, can result in significant price spikes; while excess supplies can depress prices to uneconomic levels for producers.

The Market Insider aims to provide a source of information on prices and supply of a broad range of essential oils and oleoresins to the markets, for both conventional and organic products, and to supplement this with more detailed assessments of particular products, markets and origins. The objective is that established producers and prospective new entrants will find information of use and interest.