"I would say that we didn't choose, but rather Figueiró dos Vinhos chose us", the technical and production manager of the company Scents from Nature told the Lusa agency.

Maria Emília Marques went back to 2017, the year of the Pedrógão Grande fires, which also affected Figueiró dos Vinhos and Castanheira de Pera, among other municipalities, the three municipalities where the Portugal Day celebrations are taking place, to explain the path the company has taken.

"After 2017, with the fires, we realised that we could perhaps be useful here to clean up some of the remains left in the forests when the eucalyptus trees are cut", added Maria Emília Marques, mentioning that, of the three municipalities that received the project, the Figueiró dos Vinhos City Council, in the north of the Leiria district, "responded with incredible speed". On a Sunday.

The region chosen by Scents from Nature was this one, "because it was an area where eucalyptus reigns", so there was easy access to the raw material.

"On the other hand, we wanted to help, in a way, with the maintenance of the forest, not leaving anything abandoned and collecting all the leftovers that normally remain and then become a source of fire", she added.

And it is in the forest that everything begins, when the loggers cut the eucalyptus trees: the wood goes to the pulp mills; the branches (tips) that remain on the ground go to the company.

"Here, we crush the leaf attached to the small branch. Everything else, the wood and the leaf that is then dehydrated, goes to partners who use it for biomass, pellets or for energy production", explained Maria Emília Marques. Or, in other words, the application of Lavoisier's Law: "In nature, nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed".

In the extraction/distillation process, the oil is extracted from the leaf by passing steam through it and separated in the decanter.

"The oil has a predefined chemical composition and, if we want to enrich it, we take it to a distillation tower where it can be distilled" according to the specification requested by the customer.

The company started operating in October 2022, with an initial investment of 3.7 million euros, and will proceed with the expansion.

In 2023, the company's zero year, between 600 and 700 tons of eucalyptus leftovers were processed, resulting in three thousand kilograms of oil.

"Of these 600 tons, about 40%, 30% is leaf", she said, anticipating that this year the company will "more than double the production" of essential oils.

With 17 employees, seven of whom are foreign (the nationals are all from the region), Scents from Nature acknowledged the difficulty in hiring labour, qualified or not, which is a constraint to increasing production.

Producing mainly for export, Maria Emília Marques highlighted the advantages of the company being in Figueiró dos Vinhos, where "the raw material is at hand". But there are things that limit the activity of the company, which is located in a small industrial area with nearby houses and a "very bad" Internet network.

The company, which helps to keep the forest clean, noted that in the region "the land is very steep and small".

"And the costs for our raw material suppliers, to remove it from difficult places, are high and nobody goes there to see, so it stays there. When it is visible and when the owner of the land says 'no, it has to be cleaned, everything has to be removed', it is an advantage for us, because even though we pay, it is a way for them to remove it. It is often easy to leave it there, it is not visible and the cost of removing it from those areas up here is high", warned the manager.

In these accounts, there are aspects to consider: "diesel is expensive, the machines too, there is no labour", added the engineer.

Recognising that the company is "an added value" in the region, as it has "in fact removed many tons of branches" from land, Maria Emília Marques noted, however, that "there is still a lot left there".

The Portugal Day celebrations are this year centred in Castanheira de Pera, Figueiró dos Vinhos and Pedrógão Grande, municipalities ravaged by the fires of June 2017, which resulted in 66 deaths and 253 injuries, as well as the destruction of homes, businesses and forests.

Leia Também: Pena suspensa para arguidos por sequestro em Figueiró dos Vinhos (Portuguese version)