The apricot trees for our cold-pressed apricot kernel oil are grown in smallholder plantations. These are mainly located on slopes and plateaus to avoid cold air accumulating in the valleys and thus late frosts. The area between the trees is used to grow vegetables, cereals or apple trees in the early years to promote biodiversity, improve soil quality and increase resistance to pests and diseases. Apricots are pollinated in spring by wild and honey bees.

In July and August, the apricots are harvested by shaking the ripe fruit from the trees by hand or by machine. To protect the apricots from damage, the ground is covered with cloth or plastic tarpaulins. The ripe apricots are then dried in the sun for two to three days and the stones are separated from the flesh by hand. The pulp is dried further and finally sold as dried fruit.

The apricot kernels are washed with cold water and then broken with two counter-rotating rollers to separate the valuable kernels from the outer shells. As a by-product, the shells are used as fuel, while the oily kernels are partly used directly in the food industry and partly for oil extraction. The oil is cold-pressed from the kernels using a mechanical expeller press and then filtered to remove natural residues. The resulting press cake is used as animal feed to make production as sustainable as possible. Strict analyses in our DIN ISO 17025-certified laboratory confirm the high quality and purity of our cold-pressed apricot kernel oil and make it a particularly valued oil in the food and cosmetics sector.