PEGOMAS, France, Aug 27 – Wary of disappearing flower crops used in its best-selling perfumes, fashion and beauty firm Chanel has bought up more land in southern France to secure its supplies of jasmine and other varieties, harvested by hand in a delicate annual ritual.
The luxury group said it had bought up an extra 10 hectares of land, adding to the 20 hectares it already exploits in partnership with a local family near the town of Grasse, known for its surrounding flower fields.
On a sunny late August morning before the heat reached a peak in nearby Pegomas, dozens of workers were busy with this year’s jasmine harvest, the key ingredient for Chanel’s 100-year-old No.5 perfume, created by late designer Coco Chanel.
Chanel struck a deal with the Mul family in the late 1980s to anchor its production of five flowers in the region. Some local producers began selling