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The Story of a Scent : Africa’s Babies...

From TEDAfrica (2007) to TED Long Beach (2009)
Two TED Fellows in Madagascar

>>> Getting the Dream to Market...

Madagascar has a robust and expanding domestic market and a modest share of the global market for aromatic and medicinal plants AMP. The domestic market is on a growth trend because of combined government and civil society efforts to mainstream traditional and herbal medicine.

With exports of $4 million, Madagascar is not among the top ten exporting nations, but it follows very closely. However, these exports are not insignificant at the national level.

Moreover, the global market is expanding by an estimated 10-15 percent per year, and Madagascar has potential competitive advantage for some specific (e.g., endemic, scarce) plant products. 

Global markets in the aromatic, cosmetic and health care sectors demand steady supplies of new and innovative scents and medicinal products. 
The perfume industry continually searches for “new” scents that can be introduced as new seasonal lines. Increasingly, these products must also be certified organic, fair trade or sustainably produced.

Madagascar presently exports five key products in this area. Three are relatively scarce essential oils: ylang ylang, niaouli, and ravintsara.

The other two are spices: cinnamon (some bark is also distilled into essential oil) and clove (used
mostly in Indonesia in cigarettes). The potential for growth lies in organic aromatic essential oils—not only ylang
ylang, niaouli, ravintsara and cinnamon, but also from new, endemic or “exotic” plants. 

THE DREAM OF PARFUM TED CAN ONLY HAPPEN IF WE CONTINUE TO DREAM TOGETHER...

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The Story of a Scent : TED 2009 ends The Journey to Madagascar begins...

Thursday Night, 5th Feb – Pine Avenue TED Block Party 8: 38pm

Sitting at the table for dinner at the Block Party, Adriankoto could hardly eat, he was really nervous, change is comming in his home country Madagascar, a big presentation to partners at Megaseeds  his Japanese TEDsters friends.

Sheila’s thinking about the book at bedtime, a gift from Adriankoto “A Guide to The Health Benefits of the Essential  Oils of Madagascar: The Healing Trail: Essential oils of  Madagascar” by Georges Halpern, MD, Ph.D, a Professor of University of California at Davis.

So many omens.......science, Japanese (she speaks Japanese) and Africa...what is the Universe saying?....

Some Facts

•    Madagascar  is one of the world’s poorest countries economically and one of its richest in biodiversity.
•    Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island, covering an area of 592,000 km2.
•    It contains at least 13,000 plant species, of which more than 80 percent are endemic and 3,500 are reported to have medicinal properties.

•    With a per capita GDP of  U.S. $809, Madagascar ranks 146 of 177 countries on the Human Development Index.
•    Seventy-four percent of its population lives in rural areas, and 78 percent of the rural population lives in poverty.

•   Agriculture accounts for the largest share of GDP  (35 percent); economic growth has accelerated over past four years (5.2 percent in 2004), as the government shifted from socialist to private sector- led growth policies.
•    Political strife associated with this transition set back the country, as key road infrastructure was destroyed.
•    Madagascar’s rural economy is based upon subsistence-oriented agriculture. Much of this agriculture is slash-and-burn (tavy), which has been a principal cause of forest cover and biodiversity loss.
•    The challenges of improving standards of living among the rural poor and conserving biodiversity are interlinked in Madagascar, and a key issue is how to increase rural incomes and reduce the need for tavy.
•    This proposed enterprise will highlight the interlinked challenges of biodiversity conservation and rural poverty reduction by promoting alternatives to tavy along two of the country’s forest corridors: Zahamena-Mantadia and Ranamofana-Andringitra- Ivohibe.

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The Story of a Scent : MEGASEEDS and the Creation of Parfum TED

Thursday, Feb 5th – Long Beach

2:15pm. Overheard at TED. The Renaissance Hotel

....So Adriankoto says to Sheila......”How was your table?”  They were talking about the wierd kind of match-making at the TED Fellows Debut lunch.

Sheila: “Umm.....I sat next to a cool software guy and we talked about social networking sites etc, etc.....” her voice trailed off.

Adriankoto: “No one spoke to me actually.......in fact, our table was........mostly us.....”

Both: “Umm...”

Sheila: You know I want to come to Madagascar and help you with your project. I miss working as a plant scientist...I miss the concentration.......doing really hard heady stuff....”

Adriankoto: You should come then....we could do some great work....

Sheila: Yes....I love plants.....Ylang, Ylang.....

Adriankoto: Yeah...You know that’s what they use for Chanel No.5 ? There’s an island in Madagascar which smell Chanel No.5

Sheila: For real?.......... We should create our own perfume you know.....Essence of Madagascar......something like.....being a TEDster.....wierd?

Adrian: Ummm.....Parfum TED.....WOW! Let’s do it.  Someone like Forrest Whittaker....he’s the essence of a TEDster....

Sheila: Absolutely! Cool, kind, clever.......just a little sexy too.

Adrian: Did you see the film Perfume?

Sheila: Yeah....but that story was just gross....we’re living on the light side my Malagasy Brother

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