In northeastern Bulgaria, not far from the Black Sea, summer transforms the countryside. Across this agriculturally rich area, fields of wheat, corn, barley, and sunflower dominate the landscape as far as the eye can see. However, in this ocean of vegetation, a distinctive purple flower peeks through the abundance of crops around it.

Lavender.

History & Heritage

Bulgaria has a rich history of producing lavender and other aromatic crops. Lavender was imported to Bulgaria in the early 20^th century and has thrived in the country’s climate. The combination of favorable growing conditions, generations of essential oil expertise, and established production capabilities has made Bulgaria the world’s largest producer of lavender essential oil, surpassing other major producers such as France, Spain, and China.

As the country's agricultural economy changed, farmers increasingly shifted their focus toward staple crops like wheat, sunflower, and corn. Aromatic crops such as lavender and rose became a much smaller part of the agricultural landscape, and by 2024, the two accounted for just 1% of Bulgaria's arable land.

The global lavender industry was changing as well. Increasing commoditization and market instability created new challenges around consistent quality, purity, and traceability. For farmers, lavender also carried an inherent risk: unlike an annual crop, a lavender field is an investment that can remain in the ground for approximately eight years. Decisions made when planting a field can affect a farm for years to come.

Still, Bulgaria's knowledge of lavender cultivation and essential oil production had not disappeared. Generations of agricultural experience remained in the region, along with farmers who continued cultivating the crop.

The heritage was still there. What was needed was a new way to build upon it.

A Growing Market, Inconsistent Quality

As global demand for lavender essential oil grew, so did the complexity of the supply chain. In a conventional commodity market, lavender oil can pass through multiple hands—from farmers and distillers to brokers, traders, and other intermediaries—before reaching the company that ultimately uses it.

Each additional step creates distance from the original source and another opportunity for the oil to be diluted, blended, or adulterated with less expensive materials to increase profit margins. By the time an oil reaches its final buyer, determining exactly where it came from and how it was handled along the way can be difficult.

For dōTERRA, protecting the purity and consistency of Lavender meant shortening that distance and creating greater traceability from the field through distillation and testing.

Protecting Quality at the Source: Esseterre

Rather than relying on a long chain of intermediaries for Lavender essential oil, dōTERRA chose to go directly to the source. In 2015, dōTERRA established its own distillation facility, Esseterre, in the Dobrich region of Bulgaria.

The goal was to create a shorter, more transparent supply chain—one where dōTERRA could know where its lavender came from, how it was grown, how it was distilled, and how the oil was handled at every step. By investing directly in the infrastructure at the source, dōTERRA could strengthen traceability, reduce exposure to adulteration, support a more stable supply, and maintain oversight of quality from field to finished oil.

While the distillery may have been funded by dōTERRA, it is still a Bulgarian operation through and through. Bulgarians built it, manage it, and operate it. From managers and engineers to distillers, agronomists, laboratory specialists, and farmers, local expertise guides every stage of the process. Esseterre brings modern infrastructure together with generations of Bulgarian knowledge in agriculture, aromatic plants, and essential oil production—building on a heritage that has been cultivated and passed down over decades.

From Field to Still

During Bulgaria’s short lavender harvest, the relationship between Esseterre and its growers comes into full view. Lavender is harvested from late June through late July and transported directly from contracted farms to the distillery, generally on the same day it is cut. In 2025, Esseterre worked with 27 lavender farmers in the surrounding region, processing the year’s crop within just three to four weeks.

At Esseterre, each load begins a carefully managed distillation process. Lavender is weighed, unloaded, and placed into one of the facility’s 37 stills, where steam pulls the essential oil from the plant material over approximately one to one-and-a-half hours. During the height of harvest, the facility can operate around the clock to process the freshly harvested crop.

Lavender also demonstrates just how much plant material can be behind a small bottle of essential oil. Its average yield is approximately one percent—meaning roughly three pounds of harvested lavender are needed to produce enough essential oil for a single 15 mL bottle.

But distillation is only part of the process. Esseterre’s on-site laboratory allows the team to analyze the oil close to where it is produced, while records throughout the supply chain help connect the finished oil back to its source. Rather than trying to reconstruct that story after an oil has passed through a series of intermediaries, Esseterre allows dōTERRA to build traceability into the process from the beginning.

What Predictability Means to a Farmer

That direct connection has implications beyond quality.

For growers, lavender requires a different kind of commitment than many of the annual crops surrounding it. A field takes time to become productive and can remain planted for roughly a decade. Once a farmer decides to establish lavender, the decision cannot simply be reconsidered the following growing season.

At the same time, the wider lavender market can fluctuate. Prices change, demand rises and falls, and growers still face the uncertainties common to agriculture. Esseterre cannot eliminate challenges like weather, rising production costs, or labor availability. What a direct sourcing relationship can provide is greater certainty about where a farmer's lavender will go once it is harvested.

That distinction matters to the farmers themselves. Plamen, a farmer who has grown lavender since 2008 and began working with Esseterre in 2016, described the lavender market before the relationship as highly unstable. Afterward, he said he could “plan ahead and work calmly.”

Rumen, another longtime grower, similarly credits the relationship with helping him plan for the future and continue developing his farming operation.

For these growers, stability does not necessarily mean removing risk. It means removing some of the uncertainty surrounding what happens after the crop leaves the field.

Building Expertise at the Source

The decision to invest in Bulgaria also meant investing in the people and expertise required to operate the supply chain there.

Today, Esseterre employs more than 80 people at its facility and distills 9 other oils for dōTERRA – melissa, blue yarrow, three types of frankincense, myrrh, summer savory, rose, and echinacea. Bulgarian agronomists work with growers in the field. Engineers and distillers manage the equipment needed to process botanicals during intense harvest windows. Laboratory personnel analyze the resulting oils, while research and development teams explore new crops, cultivation methods, and future opportunities.

Keeping these functions close to the source creates more than production capacity. It keeps specialized knowledge—from agronomy and distillation to analytical testing and essential oil research—within the Bulgarian operation itself.

In that sense, Esseterre is not simply a place where lavender is distilled. It is an investment in the infrastructure and technical expertise surrounding Bulgaria’s broader tradition of aromatic plants.

Beyond the Lavender Fields

Over time, that investment has also provided a platform for engagement beyond the supply chain.

Since 2016, dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation, Esseterre, and Terra Roza have supported more than $1 million in social initiatives across Bulgaria. These efforts have focused on areas including education, healthcare, social inclusion, employment, and community development.

In Dobrich, this has included the Step by Step mentorship program, which supports children and young people from social care centers through education and personal development. Other initiatives have helped renovate pediatric hospital wards through the Firefly Project, supported employment for people with intellectual disabilities through The Wonderful Garden, and contributed to playgrounds, scholarships, healthcare equipment, and other community resources.

These projects extend beyond lavender itself. But they demonstrate what becomes possible when sourcing is treated as a long-term presence rather than simply a transaction. Establishing infrastructure in Bulgaria created relationships—with farmers, employees, organizations, and communities—that have continued to develop long after the first lavender was distilled at Esseterre.

Closer to the Source

The original purpose behind Esseterre was straightforward: get closer to the source to better protect the quality, purity, and traceability of essential oils.

But building closer to the source also meant becoming closer to the people behind it.

For growers, that can mean a more direct relationship with the buyer of their crop. For Bulgarian employees, it means jobs and opportunities to build specialized expertise in agriculture, distillation, research, and essential oil analysis. And for the surrounding community, the presence of Esseterre has helped provide a foundation for continued investment in local initiatives.

In the countryside surrounding Dobrich, lavender still occupies only a small portion of an agricultural landscape dominated by wheat, corn, barley, and sunflower. Its purple fields may be easy to pick out among the crops around them, but the story behind them is much larger.

By investing closer to the source, dōTERRA built a system designed to protect Lavender quality. In Bulgaria, that same system has grown to support something more: relationships, expertise, greater predictability, and continued investment in the communities where that Lavender begins.