Ali Bokhari's writing: The Dragon’s Blood and Frankincense Company in Richmond Hill Making Waves Worldwide

Ali K. Raza, owner of Raw Traders in Richmond Hill, ON, shows the jacket he wears while handling frankincense and other exotic incense products from around the world.

Meet Ali K. Raza, the young owner of one of the only North American wholesale suppliers of all-natural incense and essential oils.

By Ali Bokhari

“Come take a look at this!” my new friend exclaimed, proudly pointing at a plastic bag filled with what appeared to be off-white stones labelled “Sultan Select”.

“This is the highest-grade frankincense we carry, you can’t buy it unless you’re a good customer.”

“What’s a ‘good’ customer?”

“You have to be spending at least $10,000 in wholesale volumes with us each month to get a shot at buying it in wholesale quantities. Even then you cannot just walk up to my store and buy it. Right now we have a waiting list of more than 25 customers.”

I was with Ali K. Raza, owner of Raw Traders, one of a handful of artisan resin distilleries in North America. As a fan of my writing, he had invited me to tour his warehouse in an unassuming industrial plaza in the heart of Richmond Hill, Ontario, next to a mechanic’s shop. It was safe to say no one passing by would know Raza’s warehouse was filled to the hilt with precious tree sap and other exotic ingredients from far-off lands.

I wondered if I would ever have a shot at owning Sultan Select. Raza must have read my mind, or at least noticed how I was looking at it wistfully. “Small quantities are available in our online retail shop for everyone,” he smiled.

Raza handed over the bag of Sultan Select, and I

A packet of Sultan Select, the highest grade frankincense that Raw Traders sells. A single kg begins at C$400 and has a lengthy waiting list for wholesale customers.

obediently bent my head and took a whiff. It smelled amazing and unlike anything I had smelled before… ultra clean, fresh and with a fizzy note that somehow reminded me of a bubbling can of Sprite. He casually mentioned that just 1 kg of the stuff started at C$400.

Let me just say that while I’m a total fraghead and lover of all things related to frankincense, my trip to Raw Traders was the first time I had seen anything like this. It’s one thing simply to like frankincense, as I do, it’s an entirely different thing to dedicate one’s whole life to supplying it, as Raza was doing. I noticed he carefully put a small quantity of the Sultan Select in a plastic bag and set it aside for me, which in spite of my protests that it wasn't necessary he laughed off.

“Now look at this,” said Raza, bounding over to two

Ali K. Raza demonstrating how one of his distillers works.

spotlessly clean metal machines bristling with gauges that glinted in the light. “We use these to distill essential oils. There’s an 11-hour process to do it, which we must carefully record, plus another 90 minutes to clean the distillers properly.”

Raza’s easy smile and enthusiasm for his craft were infectious. Clearly, he was in his element, his passion unquestionable. Knowing his father Khushnood Raza is a regular for Friday prayers at my mosque who loves sharing his attars with the congregation, I asked Raza if there was a family connection to fragrances.

“Yes! It all started with my grandfather 75 years ago. His name was Ahmed Hasham Buoy Al Arakia, a legendary figure in the field of fragrances in Yemen. In 1938 he was the first person to get an export licence. That allowed him to ship materials from Yemen. His good name has proven invaluable in opening doors for me; his reputation has definitely helped a lot. As you know, my father loves fragrances, but not to the extent that he wanted to join my grandfather in his business.”

I asked what he would be doing if he wasn’t in this line of work.

“Probably I’d be a math teacher. I used to be a teaching assistant at the University of Toronto back in 2010. I love math as a universal language, but I hated dealing with uninterested students.”

Raza pulled out another box filled with deep red

Reza shows a bag filled with Dragon's Blood

pebbles. “This is Dragon’s Blood. It’s found in three places in the world: Socotra Island in Yemen, Sumatra in Indonesia, and Peru. This one is also very expensive stuff and is the highest grade there is: A++. It is a type of tree resin from a plant called Dracenea Cinnabari.”

He pulled another bag containing what appeared to also be dark red pebbles. “This Dragon’s Blood is actually not a resin at all, it’s a berry from a very specific kind of tree in Sumatra, Daemonorops Draco. After the berry has been crushed, we add a very tiny percentage of a natural binder so it can be handled for burning.”

Before ever reaching Richmond Hill, the precious

The two men who row 90 km from Socotra Island to the Yemeni mainland

materials endure an arduous journey from far-off lands around the world. There are no easy one-way tickets. The Dragon’s Blood I was looking at must be picked and processed by a two-man team at Socotra Island, then rowed 90 km to the Yemeni mainland across the high seas. And that is only the beginning, there are many steps along the way before reaching Canada. Even sending money is not always easy, which is why Raza uses crypto currency to make payments.

Raza placed a small block of soap in bubble wrap and set it next to the packet of Sultan Select he had put aside earlier. “The frankincense that the wise men brought to baby Jesus was from Bethlehem. Because of the conflict there we are not able to procure it, but that is an exception; everything we sell comes from war torn lands. It just so happens that the best materials in the world come from places that have a lot of problems.”

Today Raza’s company is making a strong profit, but he declined to reveal the exact amount. His current success is a far cry from his early beginnings. Raza reckoned that from 2013 when he started to 2018, not only did he fail to turn a profit, but he lost between $30,000 and $40,000 annually. He spent those years quietly learning from his mistakes and picking up on the tricks of the trade, while building up trust with people in places where endemic corruption is a hard fact of life.

We stepped outside the warehouse into the crisp summer sun so that Raza could have a smoke, and we could drink the espresso he’d made for us.

I wondered how one could get into the frankincense business and asked my new friend what advice he would give to anyone interested in following in his footsteps. He paused, as though it was the first time he’d been asked the question.

“This profession has an almost 100% failure rate. People on the outside have no idea how difficult what we do is,” he said flatly at last, adding that he had to adjust to constant crises and stress, something that was difficult for him when he first started out. “By the laws of math, I shouldn’t be here. Simple mistakes can quickly get worse, but at the same time I can’t get too worried because emergencies are completely normal in this field.”

Raza said he believed his wholesale customers came to him because he was one of only a handful of people who could offer so many all-natural materials at his level of quality.

“Raw Traders has three customers in Australia, two in Germany, one in England, and 10–15 in the US, but my best customer in the world is in Hamilton,” he confided as we returned inside, mentioning a city less than 90 minutes from Richmond Hill on a good day. “His name is Dan Riegler and he owns Apothecary’s Garden. I do all his oil extraction; he is the gold standard when it comes to natural perfumes, he's my favourite person in this business and I've learned so much from him.”

As Raza spoke, he kept pulling materials from bags

Reza sharing his favourite material, labdanum.

Palo santo sticks in a retail package.

sitting on shelves to let me sniff, all of which had the most lovely scent profiles, including vanilla (benzoin), woody (Palo Santo, the material Raza liked least), and leathery oud (labdanum, Raza's favourite: “I could smell it all day!”).

“At least 85% of my money is made in the wholesale market, with our peak season now [in September] to December. I don’t make my money in sales; I make it in how I buy products strategically.”

Seeing these actual active ingredients I had only heard about was fascinating. I knew most fragheads had never directly seen such ingredients, it was an experience I knew I would always remember.

As I turned to go, Raza met me at his cashier

station and handed over a bag filled with the things he had been setting aside since I walked in: Sultan Select frankincense, soap, incense sticks, Palo Santo sticks, essential oils, sandalwood incense cones and other goodies. I protested that it wasn’t necessary, but he was having none of it.

“I believe it’s a good sign that a business is doing well when it can do this. I’m so honoured that you stopped by, and I hope you can do it again soon.”