Baobab make National Geographic

Pop down to your local magazine store and read about our baobab in National Geographic this month!

New CEO at PhytoTrade Africa

It was a pleasure meeting incoming CEO John Cheesmond at PhytoTrade Africa’s annual general meeting in Gaborone last week. John  brings a wealth of private sector trade and investment experience, and lives conveniently near our friends at the Union for Ethical BioTrade in Switzerland. Welcome to the team, John!

On the flip side, we were sad to see Gus Le Breton officially handover the helm of PhytoTrade Africa, although he’s not going far – since he’s starting up a Kigelia cosmetic venture we’re bound to bump into him from time to time.

Great news for marula and baobab fruit harvesters

There's great news for African communities that harvest wild marula and baobab fruit, thanks to the development of new fairtrade standards that have been announced by the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO).  Phytotrade Africa worked with FLO and Fairtrade for nine months to undertake the fast track FLO certification process for baobab and marula, to ensure that communities could benefit from fairtrade certified products.

We caught up with Marianna Smith, who heads up certification at PhytoTrade and asked for her comments on the outcome of the process.. With a big smile she told us,"PhytoTrade is thrilled with the new direction of fairtrade standards.  Wild harvesters are so often the most exploited group in any trade chain.  Through FLO Fairtrade standards for wild harvested products from Southern Africa, this is addressed and it serves as a guideline for traders in the North to put an end to exploitation of these harvesters."

The new standards will make a huge difference to wild food harvesters as it sets minimum prices for baobab and marula products. In addition, fairtrade certified buyers will pay a premium on top of market prices for each kilogram of baobab and fruit that will be used for fair-trade products. Marianna explained that these premiums "can be used for improving the livelihoods of the entire community, and not just the harvesters."