jasmine. bbc eye investigations takes you to the heart of the jasmine trade in egypt to reveal dark secrets in the perfume industry. children, some as young as five years old, are working in dangerous conditions throughout the night, and pickers are earning as little as a dollar a day. while huge profits are made by giants in the business. this investigation reveals who the real masters of the perfume industry are. there is this hidden layer. they are the ones controlling everything that goes into the fragrance. and how they are falling short of the human rights commitments that they're promoting publicly. they are not actually doing things that they promised to do. as we expose for the first time the use of child labour in the supply chains of some of the world's most luxurious fragrances. mohamed grew up in the village of shubra beloula in al—gharbia, the centre of the jasmine trade in egypt. around 720 acres of land across the region are planted with these precious flowers. mohamed used to work in the jasmine industry, but now he organises tours to educate people about it. mirna el—helbawi, a human rights activist and beauty influencer, hasjoined mohamed's tour to look into where and how her perfume is made. wow. ourjasmine is, uh, is a very special crop. my name is hussein fakhry and i'm owner/president of fakhry & co. jasmine is a lady of the night, so she only has a story to tell you at night. so you want to catch that fragrance. when the sun goes down in this region, there is a secret world of the perfume industry that you don't see. mirna wants to meet the people that pick herjasmine. and is heading to fields situated outside of shubra beloula. egyptian jasmine blooms just after sunset. in order to catch the fragrance, the flower needs to be picked before it withers in the sun's heat. heba's family is one of thousands of pickers that have to start work in the middle of the night. the pickers have to strain their eyes to find the flowers, and fight through mosquitoes and pesticides, as they gather as much jasmine as possible. like the majority ofjasmine pickers in this region, heba and her children work throughout the harvest season from june to november. the temperature can reach up to a0 degrees celsius. when the sun comes up, the pickers deliver their flowers to a collection point, of which there are hundreds. once the flowers have been weighed, they are transported to factories operating in the region. these are the main three. the factories extract jasmine oil from the flowers to sell to fragrance houses around the world. heba, like most of the jasmine pickers, is what's known as an independent picker, and works on a smallholder farm. out of what she earns, she has to pay a third to the owner of the land that she picks flowers on. heba alone picked under a kilo of flowers overnight. but with the help of her children picking, she managed to deliver 1.5 kilos ofjasmine flowers to the collection point, leaving the family with roughly $1.50 for today's work. inflation in egypt is at an all—time high. the egyptian pound has depreciated by more than 50% since 2022. relatively, independent pickers are making less forjasmine than they have ever done before, and are living below the poverty line. at the start of every season, the price for a kilo ofjasmine flowers is set by the factory owners. the low price is the reason why heba has to take her children to work. but how many other families are forced to do the same? during the summer of 2023, the bbc filmed across this region. we spoke to many residents, and witnessed that at four different locations, a significant number of jasmine pickers were children under the age of 15 working on smallholderfarms, and we can reveal that most of the flowers from these locations are sent, via collection points, to the main factories. multiple sources have also told us that there are children working on farms directly owned by one of the factories — machalico. but we had no way of accessing them, unless we went undercover. in egypt, it is illegal for any child under the age of 15 to work between the hours of 7:00pm to 7:00am. but in a multibillion—dollar industry, who is really to blame? back in cairo, mirna is trying to find out more about her favourite bottle of perfume. so, i have this bottle of perfume. it's one of my top favourites. lancome idole intense. it has the scent of the fields of al—gharbia, because it has egyptian jasmine in. that's why i love it so much. it opens up with notes of mandarin orange, bitter orange, egyptian jasmine. this is the perfumer who made this perfume, currently serving at givaudan. 0h, at givaudan. the perfume supply chain goes far beyond the three main factories in egypt. the factories sell their jasmine oil to international fragrance houses, where perfumes are created. givaudan, based in switzerland, is one of the largest of four major fragrance houses, valued at $38 billion, and they've been sourcing theirjasmine oilfrom a fakhry & co for years. but where does givaudan fit in the wider industry? we spent months speaking to multiple sources and industry insiders, from the factories to the fragrance houses. most were too afraid to go on the record. we arranged meetings with people who didn't show up and received message after message, explaining that no—one felt able to speak freely. but one established perfumer agreed to meet with us. christophe laudamiel spent years working inside one of the fragrance houses, where he created polo blue for ralph lauren, and amber absolute for tom ford. he now works independently. in the perfume industry, there is this hidden layer, very little known from the public, which we can call the masters of the perfume industry. as consumers, we are able to choose from thousands of perfumes that are sold by world—famous brands. but these perfume brands are owned by a handful of conglomerates, a hidden layer, considered to be the masters of the industry. our investigation reveals the use of egyptian jasmine in some of the perfumes owned by two of the masters, l'0real and estee lauder, and specifically their brands lancome and aerin beauty. a more complete picture of the masters�* supply chain emerges. when l'0real and estee lauder decide they want to put a bottle of perfume on the market, they send a brief and a budget to the fragrance houses, like givaudan and firmenich, to create the perfume, and jasmine is sourced from the factories. these hidden masters that people don't know much about, they sign contracts with the brands and with the celebrities. so, in fact, the brands don't know what is inside if the liquid inside our perfume bottles costs, on average, $1, what are we really paying for? industry experts have given us a breakdown of the estimated costs that go into a $100 bottle of perfume. this further indicates that the jasmine pickers receive a very small fraction of what we consumers spend. the fragrance industry is booming, with more people buying perfume than ever before. bestjasmine perfumes. i have over 400 bottles of perfume. yes, it's a lot - of fragrance but... 3,000 new fragrances were launched in 2022 alone, with many brands including egyptian jasmine in some of their bestselling perfumes, and are sold on the market with ever—rising price tags. while it's boom time for the industry, the pickers are not seeing any of these profits, and are struggling despite promises that have been made by both the masters and the fragrance houses. in their promotional material, they paint a picture of ethical sourcing practices. our products and day—to—day actions contribute to - the health and well—being of people and our planet. | at l'0real group, we create the beauty, beauty that cares. our business wouldn't exist without the communities where we source and in which we operate. we want to ensure they benefit from working with us. one of the largest fragrance houses, givaudan, says on its website... they've taken photos from al—gharbia to promote their commitments in protecting jasmine pickers and their families. and they say in one of their glossy web pages... but the promotional material that exists across the industry doesn't match with what we've seen in the jasmine fields in egypt. we put all of our findings to the masters of the perfume industry. we asked the three main factories for a comment, and they said: hello, there. wednesday was a decent day, right across all four nations. in fact, we saw temperatures in excess of 20 degrees, and we haven't seen that for over a week. but you may have heard a rumour that things are going to get warmerstill, and, infact, into next week we are likely to see temperatures widely into the mid—20s, maybe peaking as high as 28 celsius, somewhere in south—east england. perhaps, for many, that's something to look forward to, but before we get too carried away, let's concentrate on the rest of this week — turning warmer, yes, with some sunny spells, but there will also be some rain pushing into the west. now, we can see the first signs of that through today, with this weak weather front here, but more significant rain waiting in the wings. but for the majority of us, it will be a dry, settled and sunny start, a beautiful start. a line of nuisance cloud, really from northern england down to wales and south—west england, that could produce the odd spot or two of rain, and some showery dribs and drabs across northern ireland and into southern scotland, with that weakening weather front. to the far north west, temperatures perhaps struggling — 15 degrees. generally, to the north, we're looking at 18—20 celsius, with highest values of 22 celsius, somewhere in the south—east. but it's certainly worth bearing in mind, if you're a hay fever sufferer, well, we are looking at very high pollen levels, quite widely, across the country. now, into friday, ourweather front will continue to push in from the west. it will start to weaken off, as it drifts its away steadily east, but there's likely to be some heavier bursts, particularly across parts of northern ireland, as we go through the day on friday. some showery outbreaks of rain into western scotland, clouding over generally, but central and eastern areas should continue to see some sunshine, and, again, some warmth. we might see high teens, perhaps, in sheltered eastern areas of scotland. highest values, perhaps, of 23 celsius, somewhere in the south—east. now, that weatherfront, as it continues to track its way steadily east, will fragment and weaken, so there is a risk of some cloud, maybe a little bit of drizzle around on saturday, but on the whole, high pressure will build, and the winds are likely to swing around to more of a south—westerly for the second half of the weekend, and it's that south—westerly wind that will drive in this warmer air. so you can see, looking ahead, a lot of dry, settled, sunny weather, and turning increasingly warm. alleluia. live from washington, this is bbc news. russian president vladimir putin arrives in vietnam after meeting north korea's leader in pyongyang. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu faces more backlash from his own government over his plans to destroy hamas. extreme temperatures at the hajj pilgrimage in saudi arabia leaves hundreds dead. hello, i'm caitriona perry. you're very welcome. vladimir putin is in vietnam on the final stop of his two nation tour of asia. early on thursday, the russian president landed in the capital hanoi for the first time since 2017. aiming to deepen diplomatic ties, mr putin is meeting vietnamese delegates and business leaders. russia is vietnam's biggest supplier of military assistance. vietnam follows a neutral foreign policy it calls �*bamboo diplomacy�*, and has abstained from condemning russia's attack on ukraine — a stance that western countries see as favourable to the kremlin. vladimir putin arrives in vietnam from north korea where he received a warm reception and signed a mutual defence agreement with leader kim jong—un. the pact would see russia and north korea help each other in the event of aggression against either country.