Baobab Fruit Harvest Offers Hope Amid Climate Challenges in Zimbabwe

Since childhood, Loveness Bhitoni has collected fruit from the towering baobab trees near her home in Zimbabwe. Traditionally, these fruits supplemented her family’s diet of corn and millet. However, with climate change devastating crop yields, Bhitoni now relies on baobab fruit as a vital source of income.

With global demand for baobab products surging due to its health benefits, Bhitoni’s once simple task has become crucial for survival. She starts her day before dawn, walking barefoot through the harsh landscape to gather the hard-shelled fruits. Despite the risks of wildlife encounters, the trade offers a lifeline amidst extreme weather conditions exacerbated by the El Niño phenomenon.

The baobab trade began to take hold in Bhitoni’s region around 2018, initially supplementing household budgets for essentials like school fees. Now, as drought worsens, the income from baobab fruit sales is essential for basic needs like cornmeal and salt. “We are only able to buy corn and salt,” Bhitoni says. “Cooking oil is a luxury, because the money is simply not enough.”

The global market for baobab products is expanding rapidly. The trees, which can withstand harsh conditions and need decades to bear fruit, have turned rural African communities into crucial supply points. The African Baobab Alliance projects that over a million rural women across the continent could benefit economically from the trade. However, the harvesting process is labor-intensive and risky, with many still climbing the massive trees despite efforts to encourage safer ground collection.

Baobab trees, often called the “tree of life,” are native to Africa and found across the continent from South Africa to Senegal. Zimbabwe alone is home to about five million baobabs. Despite the tree’s nutritional and health benefits being known locally for generations, it took years of testing and lobbying to gain acceptance in international markets. Today, baobab powder is popular in Europe, the U.S., and Asia, used in everything from beverages to skincare products.

While the demand for baobab is rising, harvesters like Bhitoni see little of the profits. Earning just 17 cents per kilogram of fruit, she can spend up to eight hours daily foraging under the harsh sun. “The fruit is in demand, but the trees did not produce much this year, so sometimes I return without filling up a single sack,” she explains. Bhitoni needs to collect five sacks of fruit to afford a single 10kg bag of cornmeal.

As global markets expand, there is hope that prices for baobab will rise, improving the livelihoods of harvesters. Zimtrade, Zimbabwe’s export agency, acknowledges the low prices paid to pickers and is exploring partnerships to establish local processing facilities, which could increase their earnings. Development economist Prosper Chitambara, based in Harare, notes that the economic power imbalance leaves fruit pickers vulnerable, as they lack the means to negotiate better prices.

Despite these challenges, Bhitoni continues her work, carefully selecting the fruit and leaving the smaller ones for wildlife like baboons and elephants. “It is tough work, but the buyers don’t understand this when we ask them to increase prices,” she says. As global awareness of baobab’s benefits grows, there is hope that harvesters like Bhitoni will eventually see fairer compensation for their labor and dedication.

READ MORE:

• Exploring Calaveras Big Trees State Park: The Tragic Tale of the Discovery Tree
• Exploring the Legacy of the Discovery Tree in Calaveras Big Trees State Park
• Agronomist Luo Dengfeng’s contributions to Africa’s agriculture sector