CARNAÚBA WAX is a natural product obtained from the processing of the raw powder exuded from the leaves of the palm tree named Carnaúba, which Latin name is Copernicia prunifera M.
To protect itself against dehydration caused by the intensity of the sun in the geographic area where it is indigenous, the leaves acquire a waxy layer on its outside part that after they are cut and dried is freed as very thin flakes and powder.

Submitted to a mechanical beaten process, the powder is released. According to the technical level of the manufacturer of the solid wax, the process can take different steps envisaging the desired degree of purity, color and other physical and chemical constants of the final product.

The raw powder acquires a lot of impurities brought by the air during the drying step of the leaves that is carried out in open spaces on the harvesting place. An attempt to improve such step, avoiding such exposure of the leaves is under way following a proposal and demonstration of a pilot plastic greenhouse made by our group of companies. That change will take time but it will be great for all the production chain.

From 60 to 90 leaves are cut every year from each exploited palm tree. It is estimated that every year around 4,600,000,000 leaves are cut, dried and mechanically beaten, producing the crude powder that will be converted into the wax; this output is growing at an average of 8% yearly and it is, presently, around twenty thousand tons yearly. Those cut and beaten leaves did not have yet an economical usage, being however used to cover the soil to avoid evaporation and to incorporate into the soil as organic matter.

Two kinds of leaves from the carnauba palm tree are harvested – young leaves that are not yet open and mature leaves, already open. The first one produce a naturally yellow wax which color is further improved in the refining process. The mature leaves produce a dark green wax which is also bleached in the refining process to produce orange yellow waxes or lighter. In the industrial process to produce carnauba wax suitable for the market, the crude powder is basically melted, filtered - sometimes with one to four filtrations operations units - and refined. According to the standards of purity, the color and the process of production there are different grades of carnauba wax known to the market.