Bulgaria

The oil rose of Bulgaria is Rosa damascena Mill., an old hybrid with double, deep pink flowers. The PGI file describes the chosen blossom as having 14 to 40 pinkish red petals. White rose (Rosa alba) is also grown on a smaller scale.

Under the PGI file, the production area covers municipalities in four provinces: Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Pazardzhik and Sofia. Rose distilling here is recorded from the 17th century; Bulgaria protected the name nationally from 1994, before the EU registered it in 2014.

Area and output swing widely. In 2024 the country harvested 10,335 tonnes of blossom, about 1,000 tonnes more than the year before. In 2025 output fell by about half, to roughly 6,000 tonnes: a warm winter followed by a cold spring froze more than half of the plantations. In 2018 to 2020 the crop had reached about 20,000 tonnes a year.

Only about 1% of rose fields are irrigated (BNR 2025), so the crop depends almost entirely on spring weather.

Picking lasts about 20 to 25 days, usually starting in May and sometimes running into early June. Flowers are picked by hand from 5 or 6 in the morning until about 11 or noon, when they have just opened and still hold most of their volatile compounds.

The PGI file requires blossom to reach the still no later than 10 to 15 hours after picking. Stills are loaded at about 100 kg of blossom per cubic metre, mixed with water at 1:4 to 1:5, and steam distilled. About 3,500 kg of blossom gives 1 kg of oil.

Phenylethyl alcohol, the molecule behind the fresh rose note, dissolves readily in water and mostly stays in the distillate water. Distilled rose oil therefore holds very little of it, at most 3% under the PGI file, while rose water and absolute (solvent extracted) are rich in it. Distilled oil and absolute smell clearly different even though they come from the same flower.

The PGI file sets a range for each key molecule: citronellol 24 to 35%, geraniol 13 to 22%, nerol 5 to 12%, nonadecane 8 to 15%, linalool 1 to 3%, farnesol at least 1.4%, eugenol at most 2.5%.

Nonadecane and other long chain hydrocarbons are almost odourless. They form the "stearoptene", which crystallises as white flakes when rose oil is chilled. This is normal for distilled rose oil and not a sign of spoilage.

Narrow ranges are an anti adulteration tool: rose oil is commonly cut with synthetic geraniol and citronellol, geranium oil or palmarosa oil. Gas chromatography against these ranges, with chiral analysis, is the usual check.

Bulgaria grows true lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) in the central, southern and north eastern regions. Plantings cover about 180 square kilometres (about 18,000 ha), a fivefold rise in roughly a decade. In 2012, when French output fell to a bacterial disease, Bulgaria became the largest producer of lavender oil. Together Bulgaria and France account for nearly three quarters of world output.

Rapid expansion led to oversupply. Bulgarian lavender oil fell from about 120 euros per kg in 2018 to about 60 euros in 2020. A drought in 2021 cut yields by about half.

Lavender is cut when the spikes are in flower, usually in early summer, then steam distilled. True lavender oil consists mainly of linalool and linalyl acetate. According to the Bulgarian essential oils association, Bulgarian oil has a greener, grassier top note than French oil and usually sells for less.

No official tonnage for lavender oil in 2024 and 2025 could be verified; trade figures range from tens to hundreds of tonnes depending on the source.

Besides rose and lavender, Bulgaria distils zdravetz (Geranium macrorrhizum), a wild mountain cranesbill, not to be confused with the Pelargonium used for "geranium" oil. Zdravetz oil has germacrone as its main constituent and is solid at room temperature.

Bulgarsko rozovo maslo was registered as a PGI by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1020/2014 of 25 September 2014. The name may be used only for steam distilled oil from Rosa damascena blossom grown and processed in the defined area and meeting the composition ranges above. Rose absolute and concrete fall outside this PGI.