When Enzo—dōTERRA's Wild Orange sourcing partner—was four years old, his grandfather would take him through the citrus oil factories of Sicily.

He remembers his grandfather showing him how essential oil was extracted from fresh citrus peels by hand. The care and skill behind the process—and the bright aroma that filled the factories—fascinated him. Even then, he sensed that this was more than a family business. It was something he wanted to carry forward.

“I always knew that I wanted to do this from the very beginning,” Enzo says. “It’s truly something which comes from my family heritage.”

That heritage reaches back to approximately 1873, when Enzo’s great-grandfather began producing citrus essential oils in Sicily. At the time, the oil was extracted from citrus peels using sponges—a painstaking process performed entirely by hand.

Today, the equipment is different. The citrus moves from trucks onto conveyor belts and through modern processing machinery. But for Enzo, the purpose behind the work remains unchanged.

“Although we use machines to do that nowadays,” he says, “the spirit is still the same.”

From Sicily to Southern Brazil

Enzo was born in Sicily and moved to Brazil when he was about 20 years old. There, his family’s citrus heritage found new soil.

“We found that the south of Brazil had the perfect climate for citrus growing,” Enzo says.

Warm days, abundant sunlight, and subtropical growing conditions allow citrus trees to flourish across the region. Their glossy green leaves frame clusters of white blossoms, filling the groves with a sweet, floral fragrance. Over time, the blossoms become fruit, and the fruit develops a brightly aromatic peel.

That peel is where Wild Orange essential oil begins.

Once the oranges reach peak ripeness, they are harvested and processed while fresh. The peel is separated and mechanically cold-pressed, opening the tiny reservoirs that hold its essential oil. The result captures the familiar character of a freshly opened orange: sweet, vivid, and full of brightness.

Producing that oil, however, requires far more than a single harvest. Citrus trees need attention throughout the year, and each growing season brings its own conditions. Frost, intense heat, unexpected rain, and changing harvest windows can all affect the fruit.

Generations of experience help Enzo and the farmers around him respond to those uncertainties. So do the relationships they have built together.

Relationships Rooted over Decades

Enzo’s family has worked with small-scale citrus farmers in southern Brazil for decades.

“We have a fantastic relationship with the small farmers in our area,” he says. “They have been supporting us for 44 years, and we have been supporting them.”

That sense of mutual support is central to the Wild Orange sourcing story. Through its relationship with Enzo and other regional partners, dōTERRA’s long-term commitment to sourcing orange essential oil helps support hundreds of small-scale farmers in southern Brazil.

Behind that number are individual families, each with a different reason for tending citrus.

One farmer spent more than four decades working in manufacturing. When his employer decided to relocate, he was asked to move again. After years of moving from place to place, he wanted something different: more time with his family and grandchildren.

He traded his home in the city for a house and land in the countryside. Together, he and his wife began caring for a small orchard.

They keep the property clean and organized, compost their organic material, and continue learning how to care for their trees. After 40 years of industrial work, the orchard has given them a new way of living—one they describe as a source of genuine happiness.

“We are very happy with our new way of life,” his wife says.

Citrus agriculture is demanding work, but it is also family work. The orchard has become a place where they can build a life together.

Beyond the Grove

As dōTERRA and its sourcing partner built relationships with farmers in southern Brazil, they also looked for ways to help strengthen the wider community. Education became one place where their support could make a meaningful difference.

In June 2020, a fire of unknown origin destroyed a local school serving 130 students, many of them children of citrus farmers connected to dōTERRA’s sourcing network. The loss came during the economic strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, making rebuilding especially difficult.

Families throughout the community rallied to raise money for the school’s reconstruction. When their efforts fell short of the amount needed, dōTERRA and its sourcing partner helped provide the remaining funding. Their combined support allowed the school to reopen in time for students to begin their new academic year in January 2021.

That experience opened the door to help another municipal school in the same region. There, students were eating meals in a makeshift space inside a classroom. dōTERRA and its partner helped fund a modest but essential kitchen and cafeteria, while the community raised money for furniture and kitchen supplies.

The new space gave students a dedicated place to eat, but its impact extended further. With improved facilities, the school was able to expand its offerings to include grades six through nine beginning in 2023. The nearest secondary school was approximately three and a half miles away, and limited transportation had made continuing an education difficult for many local children.

Today, the school serves about 170 children from 500 families. For many students, the meal served there may be their only meal of the day.

What began as a relationship centered on citrus has grown into something broader: farmers, families, and partners working together to create opportunities that can strengthen the community for years to come.

Carrying the Story Forward

Wild Orange essential oil is also sourced in Greece, where a Mediterranean climate allows citrus to mature more slowly. In both Brazil and Greece, local growing knowledge helps farmers respond to changing environmental conditions while maintaining the quality of their fruit.

A training center completed in a Greek sourcing community in 2024 is helping orange growers explore precision irrigation, pest management, and climate-adaptive agricultural practices. The setting may be different, but the underlying idea is familiar: knowledge must continue moving forward if citrus-growing traditions are to endure.

For Enzo, that continuity is personal.

His great-grandfather produced citrus oil by hand in Sicily. His grandfather brought him into the factories as a young child. His father continued the work. Enzo then carried the family’s knowledge across the Atlantic to Brazil, where it became part of a much larger network of farmers and families.

“It’s something that my great-grandfather started to do, that my grandfather did, that my father did, and I’m still here,” Enzo says. “And hopefully, the following generation will keep on doing the same.”

The aroma of Wild Orange may feel immediate—the sudden brightness released when the peel is opened. Its story, however, has taken generations to unfold.

It is a story of movement from Sicily to Brazil, of orchards planted where few existed before, and of farmers choosing new lives. It is a story kept alive not simply by producing citrus oil, but by passing down knowledge, sustaining relationships, and preparing another generation to carry the work forward.