Essenza by Agar™ is the brand name for Agar Limited’s line of essential oils made (almost) exclusively of raw materials picked and processed on the African continent., Shea butter among other products.
Essenza is the Italian name for “ Essence”.
There is a fine line between natural, organic and “ORGANIC CERTIFIED”, all organic products are natural but not all-natural products are organic.
“Certified Organic” is a registered trademark which follows heavily regulated procedures meaning 100% organic.
Agar Ltd and its partners’ essential oils, our aloe, gum arabic, frankincense and sweet myrrh are certified or in the process of being renewed by Control Union Certifications (CUC) an international certifying body with very strict criteria.
Biodiversity is one of our 4 core values at Agar, and our approach was always ethical, therefore, we became a member of Union for Ethical Bio Trade (UEBT) and are getting certified for practices of sourcing with respect.
Our gum and resins are collected sustainably, and we can help our pastoralist communities through harvesting trainings and provision of tools to ensure we respect biodiversity and give them fair prices while conserving the environment.
UEBT standard provides tools, solutions and certifications to ensure the compliances of member companies for their commitment of respecting biodiversity, conservation and human rights in accordance with Ethical Bio Trade standard.
This is a Kenyan mandatory product certification scheme for locally manufactured products provided for under section 10 of the Standards Act Cap 496, Laws of Kenya.
Manufactured goods are expected to meet specified quality requirements as in the various Kenya/Approved Standards to acquire the mark
A permit to use a Standardization Mark is issued to us to certify that all our products conforms to requirements in these Standard.
The International Federation of Essential Oils and Aroma Trades (IFEAT) – is a trade association founded in 1977; It represents the interests of companies involved in the production, processing, trading and manufacturing of the many thousands of ingredients used in flavors, fragrances and aromatherapy. To gain membership you need to be referred by two existing members and go through an assessment, so it’s not given AT ALL to be part of this sector’s association.
As a member of IFEAT, we have the privilege to access international collaboration between members and other national and international organizations, funding research and education programs, the encouragement of good practices, the dissemination of information and the provision of forums for discussion.
Since we aim to provide quality products sourced in the most ethical and sustainable way, being a member of IFEAT means an extra layer of guarantee and protection against lower standards and unsustainable sourcing.
At Agar, we take quality seriously: With Essenza by Agar™ the approach remained the same and Certificates of Analysis are available to certify the quality of the oils against minimum parameters.
Furthermore, most of our oils are certified organic or in the process to be, meaning thorough inspections have been carried out to ensure the traceability of the biomasses, the absence of any contamination and that processing is done in ways to ensure the oils are 100% natural.
Essenza by Agar™ is distributed amongst several retailers, spas and distributors in Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan and shall soon expand to more countries. At Agar Limited we are wholesalers and sell the oils in bulk: our minimum order quantity is of only 10 bottles to help the smaller distributors and spas, and we shall distribute in bottles also the bigger orders with accompanying info pages for each type of oil.
We currently have 15+ Vendors distributed between Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa, such as Pharmacies (Kalina, Links, Garnet and Portal) Natural products retailers such as Jipende Afrika, Elixir Health Shop Cosmetic ingredient suppliers (Terra Naturals) and beauty shops {(Super Duper Cosmetics) and many more including in Uganda and South Sudan.