Since childhood, Loveness Bhitoni has collected baobab fruit from the towering trees near her home in Zimbabwe to add variety to her family’s diet of corn and millet. Until recently, she never imagined the fruit could be a source of income. However, as climate change has led to severe droughts that have devastated her crops, the resilient baobab tree has become a vital resource for survival.
The world is increasingly turning to the baobab as a natural health food, valued for its nutritional benefits and versatility. Bhitoni rises before dawn, traversing hot and thorny terrain barefoot, with the risk of encountering wildlife. She spends her day collecting the hard-shelled fruit, which she then sells to industrial food processors or individual buyers in the city.
The baobab trade began to take root in her area in 2018, initially providing supplemental income for expenses like school fees and clothing in her small town of Kotwa in Zimbabwe’s Mudzi district. Now, it is a critical lifeline. “We are only able to buy corn and salt,” Bhitoni explains. “Cooking oil is a luxury because the money is simply not enough. I can’t even think about school fees or new clothes for the children.”
The global demand for baobab products has surged, turning regions abundant in these trees into crucial supply sources. Known as the “tree of life” for its ability to thrive under harsh conditions, the baobab can take more than 20 years to start bearing fruit. Harvesting is mostly done through foraging, as the trees are not cultivated.
Thousands of rural people, predominantly women, are now involved in the trade. The African Baobab Alliance, which operates across baobab-producing countries, estimates that over a million rural African women could benefit economically from the baobab’s popularity. The alliance trains communities in food safety and encourages gathering the fruit from the ground to avoid the dangerous task of climbing these massive trees.
Despite its growing global market, many baobab harvesters see little of the financial benefits. Bhitoni earns only 17 US cents per kilogram of fruit, which means a day’s labor under the harsh sun often yields barely enough to buy basic necessities. “Sometimes I spend the whole day and come back with just one sack,” she says. “I need at least five sacks to buy a 10-kilogram bag of cornmeal.”
The fruit’s thick shell helps it stay fresh for long periods, making it ideal for export. However, local buyers often take advantage of desperate harvesters, exchanging small amounts of cornmeal for large quantities of fruit. “People have no choice because they have nothing,” says Kingstone Shero, a local councillor. “The buyers set the prices, and we can’t resist because we’re struggling to survive.”
While demand for baobab products is increasing globally, prices paid to the harvesters remain low. Gus Le Breton, a pioneer in the baobab industry, believes the market is on the cusp of significant growth. “The market has grown steadily,” he says. “I believe at some point, the value will increase, and then the harvesters will see real benefits.”
Zimtrade, Zimbabwe’s government export agency, has acknowledged the low prices and is exploring ways to partner with rural women to establish processing facilities. Such initiatives could help local communities capture more value from the baobab trade.
For now, people like Bhitoni continue to work tirelessly, hoping for fairer prices and a brighter future. On a recent day, she carefully examined each fruit she collected, 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 laments.
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