Rachel Fobar
The U.S. has banned imports from Asli Maydi, the Somali company that until 2023, supplied frankincense oil to the popular U.S. essential oils brand doTERRA, over the use of forced labor.
The ban follows an investigation published last year by The Fuller Project into the abuse and exploitation of women frankincense sorters working for Asli Maydi in Somaliland.
DoTERRA, which generates more than $2 billion in annual sales, has built its brand on ethical sourcing, promising that it pays workers well and invests in the local communities where harvesters live and work.
The company has cut ties with Asli Maydi and halted its Somaliland operations, but it has thus far continued selling bottles of the so-called “king of oils” for more than $100. It recently introduced a new frankincense product, largely drawing on stock from its Bulgaria distillery, where frankincense from Somaliland was processed. In the last year, doTERRA has imported more than 70,000 pounds of frankincense from the distillery, according to import data.
“Trading in goods made with forced labor is in direct opposition to American values. When goods are manufactured at the cost of someone’s health, safety, or freedom, we all lose,” said U.S. Customs and Border Protection Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner Troy A. Miller in a press release.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) identified five indicators of forced labor: deception, physical violence, abusive working conditions, intimidation and threats, and withholding of wages. CBP has the authority to ban imports of merchandise believed to have been produced using forced labor, or any work that is performed involuntarily and under the threat of penalty. The importer can either prove the items were not made with forced labor or re-export them, or they may be destroyed.
In the past, CBP has banned imports of diamonds from Zimbabwe, seafood from specific fishing vessels, and goods produced by China’s Uighur minority. “With this action, we are sending a message to those who continue to disregard basic human rights: your goods are not welcome in the United States,” said Executive Assistant Commissioner of CBP Office of Trade, AnnMarie R. Highsmith.
A representative from doTERRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CBP issued the ban after a joint petition from the Corporate Accountability Lab, a Chicago-based human rights legal group, and the Horn of Africa Charity Organisation (HOACO), a group that advocated for the alleged victims, which have conducted their own investigation into labor abuses at Asli Maydi.
The group is also calling on authorities to penalize doTERRA for importing goods produced using forced labor and to investigate Asli Maydi and its founder, Barkhad Hassan.
Until last year, doTERRA sourced much of its frankincense from Asli Maydi in Somaliland, a self-declared republic north of Somalia. Workers there harvested resin from Boswellia trees, and much of that resin was sent to a doTERRA facility in Bulgaria, where frankincense is stockpiled and distilled. DoTERRA formally canceled its contract with Asli Maydi in December 2023.
At doTERRA’s 2024 annual convention, co-founder Emily Wright said the company has “years worth of resin from Somaliland that will give us time to find the best way forward.” She also acknowledged doTERRA’s withdrawal from the region, saying, “I want you to know this is not the end. We have pulled out of the Sanaag region temporarily but we are not giving up on this part of the world.”
More than a dozen women working for Asli Maydi told The Fuller Project in 2022 that the company routinely underpaid them, required them to work in harsh conditions linked to health problems, and was led by a politically powerful man whom several women accused of sexual harassment or assault. Some of these allegations, as well as claims that Hassan had underpaid or never paid harvesters, were also the subject of a documentary by Vice News.
When presented with the Fuller Project’s findings in December 2022, doTERRA said it would “temporarily suspend” its operations in Somaliland. To investigate, the company hired Sidley Austin lawyer Sara George, who recently concluded that “the supplier did not meet the high standards we expected of them,” according to a doTERRA statement. George also said the evidence she reviewed did not support the claims of sexual harassment or assault, though the victims maintain their allegations.
The Corporate Accountability Lab and HOACO concluded that Hassan engaged in deception, intimidation and corruption in order to “orchestrate a climate of fear designed to keep Asli Maydi on top.” CAL and HOACO “applaud” CBP’s decision to issue an WRO.
The report alleged that Hassan failed to pay harvesters for frankincense resin they harvested and that women sorters received $1 for working days of more than 13 hours in poor conditions. Numerous women reported that they were sexually assaulted, raped, or pressured to pose naked for photographs by Hassan and his associates. According to the report, Asli Maydi “eliminated all other options for harvesters, sorters, and their families,” and these conditions qualify as forced labor.
The report also details some of the intimidation tactics Hassan allegedly employed to establish dominance in the region. The report says Hassan ran his company “like a criminal gang,” and he armed his employees, “allowing him to prevent opposition or competitors from challenging his dominance.” In 2018, four young Somali activists were arrested and fined after Hassan reported them for insulting Asli Maydi, the report alleges.
CAL and HOACO recommend that doTERRA compensate victims, create a fund for survivors of gender-based violence, create a worker-driven remediation program for harvesters and sorters, and invest in the sustainability of frankincense trees in Somaliland. They also recommend that doTERRA take disciplinary action against staff who knew or should have known about the abuses, review and update current sourcing policies, provide financial transparency on social programs and donations through its nonprofit Healing Hands Foundation, and conduct a third-party investigation into the use of Healing Hands funds.
The groups also recommend that U.S. authorities should further investigate Hassan, Asli Maydi, and doTERRA for forced labor, and that Somaliland authorities should investigate Hassan and his business enterprises for theft, bribery, labor code violations, and gender-based violence and harassment.
Hassan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has previously denied all allegations of abuse and exploitation.
“DoTERRA must acknowledge their mistakes and begin a process of genuine engagement,” HOACO director Amina Souleiman said in a statement. “This should start with a sincere apology for harm done to the frankincense harvesting communities … The community is committed to seeking accountability until these issues are addressed.”
