Child labour behind global brands' best-selling perfumes - BBC World Service Documentaries

A new investigation from BBC Eye takes you to the heart of the jasmine trade in Egypt, to reveal the dark secrets behind the perfume industry.

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Children are working in dangerous conditions throughout the night, and pickers are often earning as little as a dollar a day, while huge profits are made by the giants in the perfume industry.

Over half of the world’s supply of jasmine is produced in Egypt and this story reveals the true human cost of this precious flower, considered to be one of the most valuable ingredients used in some of the world's most iconic perfumes.

Billion-dollar global brands, who use Egyptian jasmine in their perfumes, claim to have zero tolerance on child labour throughout their supply chains. But the BBC can reveal that in the 2023 jasmine harvest season, children - some as young as five years old - were working in the jasmine fields that were supplying these global brands through factories in Egypt.

0:00 ‘Perfume’s Dark Secret’
02:30 The importance of jasmine in Egypt
05:30 When the sun goes down
09:18 Making less than one dollar a day
11:39 Living below the poverty line
12:55 In the factory farms
14:53 Global brands and their supply chains
20:44 The Fragrance Houses
22:06 The impact on health
24:15 The UN Special Rapporteur
26:03 Due diligence checks
30:06 Sedex’s and UEBT’s response
32:11 'The Masters'
33:20 How much is this bottle?
36:12 Local factories’ response
37:34 “We need corporate accountability”
39:20 Fragrance Houses respond

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