(Editor’s Note: A planned nine-day vacation to Aruba, attendance at an international conference in New York City and Farm Bureau’s Annual Meeting in Orlando meant that my available time to prepare stories for this issue would be compressed to one week.
This “problem” became an “opportunity” when I contacted Michel Henriquez, managing director of the Aruba Aloe Factory in Oranjestad, Aruba, and he agreed to meet with me during my visit to the island.
Although I took advantage of an editor’s perk by putting my daughter on this issue’s cover, I have to report that FloridAgriculture Executive Editor Rod Hemphill made it clear before my vacation began that the company would not foot the bill for any of it. I agreed but went anyway. Here’s the story.)

By Ed Albanesi
Editor
Aruba is a small Caribbean island situated just north of Venezuela with a land area of about 75 square miles. It is located outside the hurricane belt, although it did feel some impact from Hurricane Ivan earlier this year.

Its climate is dry with an average rainfall of about 17 inches. Aruba’s average monthly temperatures are consistently between 80 and 84 degrees year-round. Although it’s surrounded by water, there are virtually no rivers or lakes on the island. Aruba is populated by about 70,000 permanent residents plus many thousands more who vacation there throughout the year. Timeshares are very popular in Aruba.

Its major agricultural commodity is aloe, harvested from the aloe vera plant. It grows well in Aruba’s dry climate. Aloe vera gel is used as a primary ingredient in many skin care products.

Aloe gel that was just cut from the leaf is held for this photo.

Aruba Aloe is a company, factory and brand name for aloe products that are manufactured using the gel taken from aloe vera plants grown on the island. In researching this story we gathered information and historical data from the Aruba Aloe Web site and met with Michel Henriquez, the company’s managing director.

Henriquez has been with the company for about 10 years and became its managing director in 2000. He told us aloe vera was first planted in Aruba in the late 1800s. Although aloe vera is not indigenous to Aruba, Henriquez revealed that during a boom in the early 1900s, the plant covered about 70 percent of the island.

Today the Aruba Aloe Company has approximately 150 acres of aloe vera from which it harvests the leaves. Henriquez said that the company has an agreement with Aruba’s government that will provide another 100 acres of land near Queen Beatrix Airport for production as the company grows.

“We have about four and one-half acres planted around our factory site,” said Henriquez. “We use these plants mostly for research purposes and to help us better understand our production and yields.”

An Aruba Aloe technician demonstrates how the aloe gel is extracted from the aloe vera leaf.

Although the aloe vera plant is now harvested almost exclusively for its gel, it wasn’t always that way. Delicately put, the aloe vera plant also has components that have what one might describe as pharmaceutical benefits.

As one of the factory technicians demonstrated for us, when an aloe vera leaf is cut, an orange-yellow sap drips from the open end. As a drink, this bitter sap has a very strong laxative effect. At the beginning of the 1900s it was the most used raw material for laxatives in the world.

When the green skin of a leaf is removed, a gel appears that contains fibers, water and ingredients to retain the water in the leaf. According to the Aruba Aloe Web site, the gel provides for many desirable uses.

It can be used to accelerate the healing process for cuts and wounds. It can provide sunburn relief and help to moisturize dry skin. Some people even ingest it to soothe pain caused by peptic ulcers, gastritis and radiation therapy.

The orange-yellow sap from the aloe vera leaf can be dried to a dark resinous mass to create a concentrated, powerful laxative.

The first written reports on aloe vera are more then 2,000 years old. Alexander the Great was said to have used aloe for the wounds of his soldiers. Cleopatra reportedly used it as a skin care product and even the Bible mentions the use of aloe.

In the late 1970s, aloe vera gel became very popular in the United States as a moisturizing ingredient in cosmetics and today it is among the most widely used ingredients in skin care products.

Henriquez told us that although aloe vera plants don’t require a lot of water, it is necessary to irrigate the plants about a week before harvest. And when harvest time does arrive, it is carried out by hand.

“We try to automate as much as we can,” said Henriquez. “But every plant is different. When we harvest, we cut the outside leaves and allow the inside leaves to remain.”

Although we didn’t talk with Henriquez in any great detail about company profits and other financial subjects, he did reveal that the company would make money this year. “We went 115 years without making money, but this year we’ll make some,” he said.

Interestingly enough, one of the primary marketing tools that the company utilizes is a tour of the Aruba Aloe Factory. Last year more than 80,000 visitors participated in the factory tour at a cost of $6 per head. This year Henriquez expects that number to swell to 120,000.

Michel Henriquez has been the Aruba Aloe Company’s managing director since 2000.

The tour is contracted out to a travel/tourist company that oftentimes will bring visitors in by the busload. After a trek through a small museum, the viewing of a short documentary and an enclosed catwalk tour through factory production areas, visitors are brought to, you guessed it, a nicely appointed and well-stocked gift shop.

When my wife and other family members first took the factory tour in 2003, there was much purchasing of the products that they had just learned about. There’s no doubt in this writer’s mind that the tour sells products. The gift shop even offers towels, hats and other logo products.

Visitors departing Aruba by air get a last chance to pick up some products after clearing security and immigration at Queen Beatrix Airport. And for some reason the Aruba Aloe Skin Care Extra Cooling After Sun product seemed to be selling very well when we were headed back to Florida.

Trina Merwin of Lee, Mass. fills her basket with Aruba Aloe products after taking the factory tour.

Ah yes; Florida. Since this publication is named FloridAgriculture Magazine, readers might be asking if there is a Florida connection to this story. Fear not, cause there is one.

You can purchase Aruba Aloe products in the United States, but you can only do so online. And the online distributorship is run out of Tampa.

Simply click on to http://www.arubaaloe.com/ and you will be on your way to learning more about these aloe products.

You will also learn more about the history of the aloe industry in Aruba, including some additional information that wasn’t included in this story because of space limitations.

The Web site also contains a series of skin care tips in the form of short articles written on subjects such as the making of lotions and sunless tanning. Some of the tips contain humor that may or may not be intended. I found the tip on hair loss to be particularly intriguing (you’ll have to check it out yourself).

Our family owns one of those Aruba timeshares, so we’ll be heading back there next October. Anyone up for a story on parasailing?

Magical
dancing

63rd Annual
Meeting

CONTACT WEBMASTER

Florida Farm Bureau Federation
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Gainesville, FL 32614-7030
Phone: (352) 378-1321