Processing damask rose petals into gulkand, rose water and attar is a small-factory business, and gulkand is the easiest product to start with: it needs only petals, sugar, jars and sunlight, and a food licence. Rose water needs a still. True attar needs a deg-bhapka still, a base oil and skilled hands, and cheaper paraffin-base attar sets low prices in the trade.
This page covers turning petals into products and selling them. For growing the bush, varieties, pruning and flower yield, see the damask rose growing guide. Petals must be processed within hours of picking, so a processor either grows roses near the unit or has a firm supply of fresh petals.
Which product, which investment
| Product | What is needed | Realistic scale | Main buyers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gulkand | Petals, sugar, steel or glass jars, sun for 3 to 4 weeks, filling and sealing | Home or cottage, then small unit with boiler and filling machine | Retail packs, sweet and snack makers (the manual lists gulkand sweets and cakes) |
| Rose water | Still with condenser (kitchen set-up or laboratory still for trials; deg-bhapka or larger still for volume) | Village unit shared by growers | Retail, food and sweet makers, cosmetic firms, religious use |
| Attar (ittar) | Deg and bhapka, base oil, skilled operator | Craft unit or a project of lakhs | Perfumers, traders and exporters, Kannauj market |
| Rose syrup, petal tea | Sugar and filling or drying equipment | Cottage | Retail and bulk food buyers |
Gulkand step by step
NIFTEM's manual under the PM FME scheme gives the standard method. Petals of Rosa damascena and Rosa bourboniana are used.
- Harvest: pick fully open, fragrant flowers between 5 and 7 am.
- Prepare: spread the flowers on a clean sterilised floor for about 12 hours to reduce moisture and make petals easy to separate. Remove rotten petals, anthers and stalks, wash and dry the petals slightly.
- Mix: 1 kg of petals with 1.25 to 2 kg of sugar, pressed lightly with a wooden hammer in a steel pot or galvanised steel box.
- Mature: keep in sunlight at least six hours a day for about 3 to 6 weeks (the manual gives both 3 to 4 weeks and 30 to 45 days), stirring with a wooden stick. Cardamom seeds or silver foil, about 2 g per kg, can be added.
- Pack: fill clean glass jars or sealed pouches of 0.5 to 1 kg. The manual shows bottles being corked and pasteurised at 82 °C, then cooled and stored.
Each kg of petals goes in with 1.25 to 2 kg of sugar, so about 2.25 to 3 kg of mix; the finished weight depends on how much water the petals lose. Work out your cost per kg of gulkand from your own petal and sugar prices plus jars and labour.
Rose water
- Rose water is a distillate of petals and water. The NIFTEM manual describes a laboratory method (a distillation flask with water-cooled condenser) and a kitchen method: a steel pot a quarter full of water, petals cut into strips, a receiving cup standing above the water, and an upturned lid filled with ice so steam condenses and drips into the cup. Collect the distillate in fractions and keep them separate.
- These are trial-scale methods. For volume, growers use a deg-bhapka or a larger still; ask CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow and CSIR-IHBT, Palampur about current still designs and training.
- Flowers lose their oil quickly after picking, so distil the same day. Rose water that is to be sold for food or on the skin must be bottled clean and labelled; see the licensing section below.
Attar (ittar)
- Process: in the traditional deg-bhapka method, petals and water are heated in a copper deg, steam passes through a bamboo pipe into a bhapka (receiver) standing in a cooling tank, and the fragrance is taken up by the base in the receiver. The operator must keep the boiling matched to condensation to control pressure. The oil and water are left to separate, the water is returned to the still (cohobation), and the finished attar is rested in leather bottles to settle and lose moisture.
- Base: traditional attar uses sandalwood oil; cheaper attars use liquid paraffin, which the NIFTEM project report says is used for cheaper attars.
- Oil is very scarce: in CSIR-IHBT trials of damask rose, recovery was 0.03 to 0.045% of fresh flower weight, so 2,200 to 3,300 kg of flowers give 1 kg of oil. That is why pure rose oil is sold by the gram and why a processor needs a lot of petals.
- Model project: the NIFTEM PM FME detailed project report for an attar unit (paraffin base, 15 litres an hour) costs ₹23.48 lakh: ₹13.90 lakh machinery, ₹1.80 lakh other assets and ₹7.78 lakh working capital, with ₹5.50 lakh of subsidy (about 35% of the ₹15.70 lakh of fixed assets). It assumes petals at ₹300 to 400 per kg, liquid paraffin at ₹60 to 65 per litre and a sale price of ₹55 per 100 ml bottle in year 1. On sales of ₹107.22 lakh and raw material of ₹75.60 lakh, the first-year profit after tax is only ₹1.66 lakh, rising to ₹8.26 lakh in year 5. A paraffin-base attar is a thin-margin, high-volume business.
💡 Tip: Start with gulkand or rose water from your own petals and sell a few hundred jars to see what retail and trade buyers actually pay. Add a still and attar only after you know the buyer, the base oil and the licence needed.
Licences, packing and labelling
- Under the Food Safety and Standards Act, every food business operator needs registration or a licence. The NIFTEM manual lists registration for petty operators with turnover under ₹12 lakh, a state licence for medium units and a central licence for large ones, applied for online on FSSAI's FoSCoS portal. Thresholds are revised from time to time, so check the current limits on the portal before you start.
- Gulkand and food-use rose water must be made in a clean, hygienic place, packed in food-safe containers and labelled as FSSAI requires. Rose water or attar sold as a cosmetic or perfume may fall under other rules; ask your state licensing office.
Cost and returns
- Gulkand: cost per kg = (petals per kg x petal price) + (1.25 to 2 kg sugar x sugar price) + jar, labour, sun-yard space and packing; compare with the shelf price of branded and local gulkand in your town.
- Rose water and attar: add fuel, still, operator labour and cooling water. With oil recovery as low as 0.03 to 0.045%, attar from your own damask roses is only worthwhile if you sell it as a finished, branded or trade-quality oil, not as a by-product.
- Support: PM FME offers credit-linked subsidy to micro food processors; check eligibility and current rates on the subsidy finder and with the district industries centre. A Kisan Credit Card can finance working capital for growers.
Market and selling
- Gulkand sells through retail packs and to sweet and snack makers. Rose water sells to retail, food and cosmetic buyers; attar to perfumers and traders, with Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh as the traditional trade centre.
- Risks: petals lose quality within hours, so supply must be planned around the 30 to 38 day flowering window of the bush; and cheaper paraffin-base attars compete on price, leaving little margin.
- Growers can share a still and sell together through an FPO. For higher-priced markets, see export buyers.