Securing the supply of sustainable jojoba-based beauty ingredients

Climate change imposes new stress on farmers and the industries that depend on them. Vantage Specialty Chemicals explores how integrated dual sourcing creates a supply chain that is climate-change-proof, and which protects manufacturers of cosmetics.

Climate change poses not just one, but a whole slew of challenges to farmers and downstream industries. From damaging winds during a storm, to erosion and even landslides, major weather conditions have always been a concern for farms and now they are becoming aggressively more common.

In spring 2018, unusually heavy rain caused massive flooding across the US Midwest, leaving some areas 10 feet deep in sand. In Nebraska alone, it is estimated that farmers lost $440 million worth of cattle. As a result of these floods, many farmers had to delay spring planting. Delays in crops aren’t just stressful for farmers – they could lead to significant supply chain disruption for the food and personal care industry, the latter of which continues to rely more and more on naturally-derived ingredients.

Beyond the catastrophic and headline-making weather disasters, farmers around the world are starting to notice that seasons aren’t what they used to be. Growing seasons are starting earlier and temperatures are getting higher in already warm climates. While a longer growing season could theoretically have some advantages, it also presents more obstacles in the short term, such as an increase in pest population. Early spring onset can also cause crops to grow before the soil holds enough water and nutrients, or it can ruin fruit crops that bud early and then later experience spring frost. Plus, warmer winters can affect other farming practices like grain storage.

An industry at risk

More erratic and changing seasons pose an inevitable challenge for the cosmetic industry, which has embarked on a transformative journey toward using more natural ingredients. As the industry shifts to raw materials increasingly derived from natural feedstock, it also becomes more and more exposed to the risk that climate change represents to crops and harvests.

Many oils, emollients, emulsifiers and botanical extracts are now partially or entirely derived from natural resources. Vegetable oils have benefited from the natural craze over the past few years and have become increasingly popular to formulators and consumers. These botanicallyderived ingredients resonate well with beauty and food enthusiasts concerned about their wellness and living a healthy lifestyle. Contrary to synthetic ingredients, the availability of vegetable oils is directly connected to weather conditions and so is the quality of the harvest. Purchasing departments have faced their fair share of challenges in the past years because of this.

In 2013 for instance, a poor rainy season led to an 80% drop in the Spanish olive production, sending the entire supply chain for olive and its derivatives like olive oil, into a whirlwind. More recently in 2020, the US apricot output was estimated to be down by 30% compared to previous years, due to a combination of poor weather conditions and limited available workforce. This drastic decrease in production created very tight conditions for apricot kernel oil for personal care formulations. To make up for the limited supply from the United States, oil suppliers and cosmetics manufacturers had to quickly approve alternative sources from the Eastern hemisphere, creating an unwelcomed burden on quality and formulation departments.

“Vegetable oils represent a unique challenge for procurement departments. These oils typically have a short shelf life. There is also often an intricate interdependency or competition with the food industry, which can add a layer of complexity when harvest conditions are poor and supply tight. Purchasers need to be in constant contact with farmers and processing facilities to keep up with this fast-evolving market,” says Brenda Lopez Salas, strategic sourcing manager for Vantage Personal Care.

The consequences of climate change are still not fully understood and are not likely to impact all continents in the same way at the same time. But as the beauty and personal care industry shows no sign of slowing down in its transition to natural ingredients, it becomes increasingly challenging for purchasers to secure their procurement routes.

Secure supply chain toolkit

Putting in place the right processes can help alleviate the risks associated with sourcing natural ingredients, but they all come with a high degree of added complexity:

• Full vision over ingredient traceability – in an ideal world, purchasers would like to know the full picture of how the raw materials they purchase are sourced, starting from the farm or country of harvest. Combining this mapping with meteorologic alerts can help purchasers anticipate potential shortage risks based on climatic conditions. This approach can however become cumbersome and still requires the approval of alternative sources.

• Dual sourcing – creating backup strategies can also mitigate climate-related shortages. This requires several suppliers to exist for a raw material and they must be located in different regions worldwide to reduce the chances of a meteorological event impacting all alternative suppliers at once. While this option often proves to be efficient, it generates more complexity and creates the need for upfront quality approval of all suppliers.

Jojoba cultivation

The question of supply safety for natural oils is something Vantage comes across on a regular basis. When the company decided to become the leading supplier of jojoba oil in 2012, concerns about jojoba oil scarcity and potential shortages were very much alive in the minds of its customers’ procurement departments.

Jojoba grows in very specific conditions and requires a subtle balance of dry and hot weather and reasonably mild winters to avoid the devastating effect of frost on the seeds. This is key to ensure the seeds reach their maximum potential in oil concentration. Seeds are collected once a year, so any erratic weather can wreak havoc into the harvest season and on the final oil output.

In order to protect companies from annual shortages, Vantage has invested in jojoba farms both in the Northern hemisphere in Arizona where jojoba is native, and in the Southern hemisphere, in Argentina, where the Monte Desert provides similar weather conditions to the North American Sonoran Desert. Jojoba seeds are collected at both sites and oil can be extracted nearby. This geo-diversification in both hemispheres drastically reduces any risk that, in the event of a bad harvest, manufacturers around the globe would be left with no available jojoba oil.

Furthermore, by directly operating its farms, Vantage keeps full traceability of the oil, from ‘farms to formulations’. This integrated supply chain model, from cultivation to oil refining, allows the company to strategically manage its safety stocks of both seeds and oils, further eliminating any risk of shortage. This integration also gives it total control over the quality of its product, assuring that no matter the origin of the product, each batch is delivered within the same specification, year after year.

“Operating two farms on two continents has really allowed us to come through for our customers in moments where they needed reliability and consistency to support their global growth. Jojoba oil has become increasingly popular over the past few years, and we take pride in our ability to keep delivering a consistently high-quality product, no matter what unexpected surprises Mother Nature throws at us,” says Amber Schwartz, jojoba operations director for Vantage.

As climate change creates more uncertainty over seasonal patterns, with potential dramatic impact over crop harvests around the globe, Vantage is committed to supporting cosmetics manufacturers with the most reliable level of services. By adapting and investing in this geodiversification model for jojoba, it provides customers the security of dual sourcing, along with the simplicity of dealing with a unique supplier, and one oil quality-standard. This leads to complete peace-of-mind, from ‘farms to formulations’. •

Vantage South Africa – kim.maccallum@