CALABRIAN JASMINE

The fragrance of history, labour, and dignity

Origins

The industrial cultivation of jasmine began in the 1930s in Sicily and Calabria, particularly in the province of Reggio. Destined mainly for the perfume markets of Italy and France, this flower carries a story that is also an example of true Italian feminism. By the late 19th century, vast areas of Reggio and the Piana di Milazzo were planted with vines; the wine produced, very alcoholic and sweet, was exported to the French Riviera to adulterate local wines.

Following a major crisis in the sector, lawyer Vincenzo Vece, after observing the cultivation of Jasminum grandiflorum on the French Riviera and the Ligurian coast, decided to try it in the Piana di Milazzo. Around 1930, he founded Bonaccorsi D’Amico e Vece. The idea proved successful. In a short time, many vineyards were converted into jasmine fields, and the flowers were exported to Grasse and neighbouring areas, leveraging old ties between local producers.

In 1927, the first jasmine plantations appeared in Calabria, between Brancaleone and Ferruzzano, and within a few decades spread as far as Siderno, giving rise to the name “Jasmine Coast.”

In 1932, the first Calabrian distillery was established in Brancaleone, promoted by the Experimental Station for Essential Oils of Reggio Calabria, with the goal of showcasing a unique processing technique. The experiment was so successful that many growers built their own extraction plants, and even some French fragrance companies opened processing facilities in Calabria.

About 99% of jasmine was processed directly in Calabria. The main product was jasmine concrete and, by 1945, it is estimated that around 50% of global demand — about 600,000 kg — came from the provinces of Reggio Calabria and Messina.

THE WORK OF THE GELSOMINAIE

The growth of jasmine cultivation in Calabria was encouraged by the low cost of land and, at the same time, by the migration of workers to northern Italy and abroad. Most of the population that remained was made up of women, often called “white widows” because of their husbands’ absence. For about fifty years, it was the hands of the Calabrian gelsominaie — jasmine pickers — that delicately harvested each flower, often in exchange for meagre wages and under harsh working conditions.

They began working very young, often well before the age of twelve, and continued until their fifties and beyond. Their days started in the middle of the night: they would leave their homes around one o’clock to reach a dirt road where a truck would pick them up and take them to the fields. Work in the jasmine groves began around two in the morning and ended around ten. Many mothers, unable to leave their children behind, brought them along: the youngest were laid to sleep in baskets between the rows, while the older ones, depending on age, helped with the harvest. Once the picking was over, the women returned home, where housework still awaited them.

To obtain a single kilogram of flowers, between 6,000 and 8,000 had to be picked, depending on their size and the amount of dew absorbed. On average, each woman harvested between four and five kilograms per day, but there are stories of workers who managed to gather as much as eleven or twelve kilograms in a single day.

THE JASMINE PICKERS’ REVOLUTION

The history of the gelsominaie is a chapter of authentic Italian female emancipation. Their effort and daily sacrifices turned into demands, collective organisation, and victories that forever changed the role of women in the workplace. Working conditions were tough, wages inadequate, and there were no protections. It was Tindaro La Rosa, a trade union leader from Milazzo and member of the Italian Communist Party, who first exposed the plight of these women in La Voce della Sicilia in 1943. His denunciation helped trigger mobilisations that culminated in the strike of August 1946, a nine-day protest in which the courageous figure of Grazia Saporita, nicknamed la Bersagliera, emerged.

The struggle in Milazzo spread, giving strength and hope to many other workers in the territory of Messina and across Calabria. Even after that first battle, the gelsominaie achieved concrete improvements, such as the supply of boots to protect against hookworm, and saw their pay double from 25 to 50 lire per kilo. Protests multiplied, and later, in 1963, sustained pressure led to the end of piecework wages and the introduction of a fixed daily wage. Numerous unions sided with their cause and shielded them from landowners’ retaliation. Many supported their campaigns actively: hanging leaflets among the jasmine plants at night so they could be read without the overseers noticing, or using cars with loudspeakers to urge the gelsominaie not to work, warning of possible bombs hidden among the flowers.

After years of struggles and confrontations, their two greatest victories came in 1964, when the Serpieri coefficient — which valued women’s work at 60% of men’s — was abolished, and in 1975, with Law No. 151 on Family Law, which recognized equality between spouses in family businesses.

THE SCENT OF MEMORIES

Production continued until the 1970s, when the arrival of lower-cost jasmine from Egypt and Tunisia made it difficult for Calabrian jasmine to compete. Plantations were gradually reconverted into vineyards, and many companies were dismantled; today, only a faded image remains, along with the name of the coast that recalls the flower once perfuming the edges of State Road 106. Only recently have some companies resumed the production of Calabrian jasmine, attempting to revive an excellence that is at once olfactory heritage, identity, and social memory.