Haiti Vetiver Oil Company to develope a vetiver briquetting program using vetiver leaves and harvested roots

Unikode SA of Haiti is one of the world's largest producers of vetiver oil (30 MT per year).  Its vetiver plant source is from many thousands of small holder growers in the Les Cayes area.  Unikode has taken three important steps: (1) its production and processing systems have  become eco certified (2) it has introduced the Vetiver System using vetiver hedgerows for erosion control on vetiver (for oil) grower farms and (3) is creating a briquetting program using distilled vetiver root and vetiver leaf biomass.  In summaryl:

(1) Farmers sell Vetiver leaf biomass to briquette production facility
(2) Vetiver oil distilleries sell Vetiver root biomass waste to the briquette production facility
(3) Briquette production facility sells fuel briquettes to Vetiver farmer groups
(4) Farmer groups carbonize fuel briquettes
(5) Farmer groups form Farmer Briquette Businesses and sell carbonized fuel briquettes to charcoal wholesalers and directly to the market
(5) Households, small businesses, and the Les Cayes community at large purchase carbonized fuel briquettes.

You can find out more about this program at http://www.unikodesa.com/home and relevant links.  Unikode is very open to working with others to develop  appropriate energy programs.   You can contact Unikode at:

#9 Ruelle ST. Cyr Port au Prince
25 Rt de simon, and 4 chemin
Cayes, Port au Prince HAITI
ph: 509 37 02 00 43
fax: 509 322 7060
info@unikodesa.com

If Unicode can do this, then others in other countries should be able to do the same - especially from the huge amount of potential leaf biomass from vetiver hedgerows on small farms.