The PhytoBlog

Baobab and goji superfood smoothie launched at Natural and Organic Show this weekend

2010-02-17T19:12:00.005+02:00

A baobab and goji superfood smoothie will be launched by Soaring Free Superfoods at the Natural and Organic Show in Cape Town this weekend (19-21 February 2010). PhytoTrade Africa will exhibiting and promoting baobab, marula and devil's claw products at the show.
Why not come to the PhytoTrade Africa stand (F27) to taste a baobab cereal bar, try our delicious egg-free Bayonaise (mayonnaise with baobab fruit) or indulge in a little baobab curd, prepared by Cape Town Chef, Oded Schwarz. We'll also have marula sweets from WildFoods of Botswana. You can get directions to the show from the Natural and Organic Show web site. There is still time to register for PhytoTrade Africa's breakfast seminar on Natural Product Development for local and Export Markets on Saturday 20th February at 9am, contact Marianna

UK Fair Trade fortnight provides opportunity for better sales

2010-02-15T10:25:00.004+02:00

Next week, sees the launch of the UK and Ireland's annual Fairtrade Fortnight, which will be held from 22 February to 7 March 2010. During a two week period, the Fairtrade Foundation spearheads a national campaign to promote fair trade. This year, consumers are being urged to join in "the Big Swap", swapping their usual purchases to fair trade branded versions (for example, instead of buying their usual brand of jam, they could switch to Yozuna's fair trade baobab jam).

In the UK, some 4500 products bear the Fairtrade Mark, including food and beverages, clothing and linens, flowers, cosmetics and even footballs.

Fairtrade Fortnight has a strong record of success to date. First established in 1997, in early years the main goal was to ensure that retailers stocks fair trade products: now almost every supermarket in the country has fair trade items, and many of them will conduct special activities and promotions to mark the event, improve product visibility at point-of-sale, give customers access to more fair trade items and to improve sales.

Recently, the focus of Fairtrade Fortnight has shifted to educating consumers about the benefits of fair trade, and to encourage them to discuss fair trade and to buy fair trade products. In 2009, 11,000 events were held during Fairtrade Fortnight, reaching 17.7 million people.

The UK currently leads the way in fair trade retail. A survey conducted in September in 2009 documented that recognition of the Fairtrade Mark had risen to an all-time high of 72%. As reported in "UK Fair Trade Sales Dramatically Increase", despite the tough economic climate, UK consumers are spending more on fair trade products than ever before and sales are expected to jump by an average of 20% during Fairtrade Fortnight.

Fairtrade fortnights are also held in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Fab Baobab starter recipe

2010-02-13T16:59:00.003+02:00

This is a great starter from the Yozuna kitchen.

Baobab Jam with Melted Camembert and Caramelised Onions

Serve with fresh bread of your choice, rocket or plain salad leaves. Dip bread in melted camembert and Enjoy!

Prep time: 7 minutes
Cook time: 20-25 minutes

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

2x Sprigs of Rosemary
2x Large Bay Leaves (Fresh or Dried)
2x Large Onions
1x Camembert in a box
Balsamic Vinegar/Black Pepper/Sea Salt
Baobab fruit jam (Get this from Yozuna!)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 7. Unwrap the cheese & discard wrapper.
Take a piece of foil large enough to wrap the entire camembert & and place into the box. Now place a sprig of rosemary & a bay leaf on the foil in the bottom of the box.
Spread Yozuna Baobab jam all over the camembert & return cheese to its lined box. Add freshly ground pepper. Press sliced garlic into the cheese with remaining sprig of rosemary & bay leaf. Fold in foil/greaseproof paper to cover the top of the camembert, close lid and wrap entire box with foil.
Drizzle oil into a baking tray. Slice onions into rings & place in the tray. Season with sea salt. Add copious amounts of balsamic vinegar to the onions & mix well. Place on the top level of the oven.
Put the boxed cheese on a baking sheet/tray in the middle of the oven and bake with the onions for 20-25 mins. Ensure the onions are nicely caramelised and the camembert has melted!

UK Fair Trade Sales Dramatically Increase

2010-02-02T12:27:00.005+02:00

The latest Ethical Consumerism Report 2009, published in December 2009 by the Co-operative Bank, reports that sales of ethical products have tripled during the last decade in the UK. Despite the recession, the ethical market reached £36 billion in 2008, rising from £13.5 billion from 1999.

Fair trade product sales have shown the most dramatic growth: rising from £22 million in 1999 to £635 million in 2008, an increase of over thirty times. The Report predicts that during 2010, fair trade purchases will break the £1 billion barrier in the UK.

Clearly, UK consumers are increasingly recognises the importance of ethical issues when making purchases. The report notes that in 2008, one in every two UK adults stated that they have purchased a product primarily for ethical reasons, compared to one in every four in 1999.

More Baobab news

2010-01-10T09:48:00.003+02:00

The UK Daily Express ran a story on our fab superfruit! Read it here.

New Accredited Partners product showcase

2009-11-07T22:17:00.003+02:00

We've just finished building the Accredited Partners showcase. Take a look here and tell us what you think.

Baobab stimulates the good bacteria

2009-07-07T15:21:00.002+02:00

Read the Elle UK article on Diet and Fitness here.

Our new Ximenia video

2009-06-29T23:38:00.004+02:00

Busy time at the Natural and Organic Products Show

2009-06-26T10:15:00.002+02:00

We've got winners for our awards!

Township Trades has won the 2009 Natural Product Award (read more here). And Sarah Venter of Eco Products won the Best in Show award. We'll have more from Sarah soon.

New Video on YouTube

2009-06-20T10:15:00.004+02:00

Put together by Oxfam:

new organic marula ingredient launched

2009-04-03T11:42:00.004+02:00

We're really excited at PhytoTrade Africa, because our commercial partner Aldivia has launched a new cosmetic ingredient using organic marula oil from our members.

It's an organic marula surfactant (the stuff that makes your shampoo bubbly) in Aldivia's new Viatenza range. Surfactants help to break down oil and are used in all sorts of foaming cleansing products such as face washes and shampoos. The exciting thing about this one is that it's organic!

All Aldivia's Viatenza surfactants are made using 'green chemistry', meaning that no petrochemicals or solvents are used. The whole process leaves behind a limited carbon footprint. They have been certified organic by ECOCERT and also in line with the requirements of Cosmos, the soon-to-be-launched European organic standard.

Award winners are an inspiration

2008-10-19T16:07:00.002+02:00

Every year the PhytoTrade Africa awards remind us just how much incredible work is being done by southern African people to develop natural products ethically and sustainably.

This year was no exception. We are delighted that the judges picked WildFoods of Botswana, and its director Frank Taylor, to win the 2008 Natural Product Award. For many years Frank has inspired us by dedicating himself to a business that both uplifts local communities and cares for the environment. His new range of innovative products is attracting well-deserved interest from the likes of Air Botswana and we hope that the R20,000 award will help him move on to even greater achievements.

Congratulations too to Red Cedar of South Africa which won our Best In Show Award and the prize of R10,000 at the Natural & Organic Products Exhibition in Cape Town. Red Cedar is run by a team of six previously unemployed women from Wupperthal. The business, started as a USAID-funded Black Economic Empowerment project, is now a thriving concern producing very high quality, beautifully packaged rooibos products. We wish them every success.

It is always good to hear from previous award winners about how the award has helped them to move their businesses forward. Last year, Elephant Pepper won the Natural Product award for its Baobab Gold Chilli Sauce.

Elephant Pepper director Loki Osborn says, ‘While the media coverage of our award win helped to excite distributors about our products, the prize money enabled us to promote our sauce and ride the wave of European interest in baobab. We’ve also used the cash to bring forward the development of new products.

‘The award came at an important time for us and the continued support from Phytotrade Africa has helped us both on a technical level and in marketing and promotion as well.’

Baobab buzz...

2008-10-03T21:09:00.000+02:00

Work is progressing to get baobab fruit pulp powder and extract certified as "generally recognised as safe" (GRAS) by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA). A dossier will submitted soon and the GRAS certification - expected in around six months - will be central to us marketing baobab successfully as a safe food ingredient in the US.

Again with eyes on the US market, our market development manager Cyril Lombard and Chief Exec Gus Le Breton will be heading to the States for the Supply Side West trade show in Las Vegas, October 22-24. "This is the world's largest exhibition of healthy and innovative ingredients, so a really important opportunity for us," says Cyril. "We'll be focusing on generating US commercial interest in baobab and devil's claw."

Meanwhile in London, July's publicity blitz has resulted in a surge of manufacturer enquiries about baobab fruit pulp. Billy Smith, marketing manager at our commercial partners Afriplex, will fly to London in October to join PhytoTrade Africa's Rosie Abdy Collins at a series of meetings with interested companies. We can't mention them here (for obvious commercial
reasons) but they include some top names and we're confident that the UK's first baobab products will soon be in the pipeline.

Marula Oil at the Body Shop

2008-09-23T19:02:00.001+02:00

We're very pleased to note that PhytoTrade Africa members amazing Nambian marula oil is about to be launched in the latest Body Shop Make-up collection.

Baobab hits the news

2008-07-17T09:36:00.005+02:00

Well, Baobab has been hitting the headlines! See below for some articles this week on Baobab:

New exotic fruit to hit UK shops BBC News - UK The company which has been lobbying for the EU approval, PhytoTrade Africa, hopes the demand for the fruit will mean employment for millions of African ...

Exotic fruit cleared for UK sale The Press Association - Gus Le Breton, the chief executive of PhytoTrade Africa, which lobbied for the EU ruling, said: "According to a report by the UK's Natural Resources ...

New fruit packed with vitamin C Marie Claire.co.uk - London,England,UK The new EU ruling to sell Baobab in the UK has received the thumbs up from the chief executive of PhytoTrade Africa, Gus Le Breton. ...

Fruit with six times the vitamin C of an orange is coming soon Daily Mail - UK Gus Le Breton, chief executive of PhytoTrade Africa, said: 'The EU decision is a crucial step to developing the global market which could be worth up to ...

The PhytoTrade Africa - Baobab relationship has been examined in some blogs also:

Making Trade Fair By Omer Rana(Omer Rana) A case in point is the PhytoTrade Africa -- an organization promoting fair and environmentally sustainable trade. Recently, PhytoTrade has been promoting the import of fruit of the baobab tree from Africa. According to a recent BBC ... Omer Rana's Blog - http://omer-rana-blog.blogspot.com/

Good news for the African savannah By Phil Walker(Phil Walker) The organisation PhytoTrade Africa must be feeling celebratory this morning, as through their good offices, farmers across the African continent will now be able to export baobab fruit into the EU. It cannot be imported whole, ... The Melangerie - http://melangerie.blogspot.com/

Baobab tastes just like...

2008-07-07T09:37:00.003+02:00

The sharp zing of lime, or an exotic grapefruit-like flavour... If you've tried baobab, what do you think it tastes like? Some say it's like a deliciously tart orange, others call it passion fruit-esque, others say it reminds them of the sherbert they used to eat when they were a kid...

Mangosteens are soooo yesterday...

2008-07-06T23:02:00.004+02:00

News is spreading far and wide about the entry of Africa's favourite "superfruit" on to the European market. A great functional ingredient, packed with all kinds of stuff that's good for you, AND that benefits rural African producers: sounds like a winner to me. Plus a fruit that looks that crazy has to be good for you, doesn't it?

West African "miracle fruit" Natural Product is all the rage at New York parties

2008-06-05T14:50:00.002+02:00

(this is a video link to nytimes.com)

Butter that brought fat profits...

2008-05-19T13:41:00.003+02:00

An interesting article on Shea butter in the UK's Independent newspaper

Greunwald talks about science behind branded ingredients

2008-05-16T09:12:00.003+02:00

See PhytoTrade consultant, Dr Joerg Gruenwald at Vitafoods 2008, talking about the importance of science for branded ingredients. Many small companies think that scientific research - for example doing clinical trials - is prohibitively expensive, but Gruenwald counters that claim and argues that strong science is imperative for global success. link to article

"We Marula" x 3...

2008-05-12T14:21:00.002+02:00

Check out Swazi Indigenous Products on You Tube
You will be singing along - repeat after me... We Marula x3 rula rula rula!

Novel foods regulation article by John Wilkinson

2008-05-05T16:12:00.004+02:00

See this article by PhytoTrade Africa consultant, John Wilkinson about the novel foods process. The approval of Baobab fruit pulp by the Food Standards Agency is imminent and we expect it to be confirmed within the next few weeks. This will obviously be a huge step forward for PhytoTrade Africa and our producers.

"Glocalisation"

2008-04-18T18:49:00.004+02:00

The PhytoTeam were at InCosmetics this week where global cosmetics companies were going local... check it out.

Is Fair Trade Fair: have your say!

2008-03-11T13:23:00.003+02:00

There's been a fire storm in the Fair Trade world in the week preceding Fairtrade fortnight, as a UK-based policy institute this week slammed Fair Trade, saying that the practice distorts the market and traps some of the world's poorest farmers in a cycle of poverty. The report 'Unfair Trade' issued by the Adam Smith Institute, says that the fair trade movement does little to drive the momentum of the global food chain.

The report's author Marc Sidwell claims that consumers who buy Fair Trade products end up spending more money on poorer quality goods, due to the fact that the Fair Trade system pays farmers a fixed price. This leads to farmers not being pushed financially to improve the quality of their products, and they may even hold the best of the crop back to sell on the open market Sidwell said. The only solution to market distortion is therefore global trade, he added, and countries in Africa should instead remove the restrictive trade barriers currently keeping their economies in chains.

The author even goes so far to accuse Fair Trade organisers of manipulating consumer judgement. "Even assuming Fairtrade goods are all they claim to be, their merit would still deserve to be weighed against the rival schemes or against the possibility that the money might be better spent in other ways," Sidwell said. He goes on to say that by sustaining uncompetitive farmers, Fairtrade holds them back from the processes of diversification and mechanization, depriving them the chance of improving their professional life.

Several Fair Trade organisations were quick to respond to the Adam Smith report, citing a number of inaccuracies. In a statement on its website, the UK Fairtrade organisation denied ignoring the poorest countries in the world. "Few people can doubt that the present outcome of world trade is unfair. Two billion people work extremely hard to earn a living but still earn less than $2 per day and the FAIRTRADE Mark enables British consumers to choose products that help address this injustice. As no-one is forced to join a fair trade producer organisation, or to buy Fairtrade products, you would think that free market economists like the Adam Smith Institute would be pleased at the way the British public has taken our voluntary label to its heart - and to the supermarket checkout - to the tune of nearly half a billion pounds worth of goods in 2007 alone. But their report instead applies totally inflexible dogma and outdated information to criticise Fairtrade producers, without offering any constructive alternative for development other than "leave it to the market".

Fairtrade UK also denied trapping the farmers it works, claiming that the money producers earn through Fairtrade help allows them to invest in diversifying their trade in a way that would not have otherwise been feasible.

Divine, the Fairtrade chocolate company co-owned by a farmers' cooperative in Ghana, pointed out that Fairtrade was established because the market was unfairly biased towards Western firms, not in order to hinder third-world farmers.

the latest...

2008-02-11T21:25:00.000+02:00

Well we don't want to get overly excited at the PhytoTrade office as it's been a long and winding path, but it looks as though the the Food Standards Authority in the UK has nearly made their mind up about the status of Baobab Fruit pulp. This would mean a huge opportunity for PhytoTrade members who wish up to ramp up their supplies of this new food ingredient for the European market. We're also aiming towards GRAS (Geneally Recognised As Safe) status in the US which would also open up the North American Market too. We remain calm, and quietly confident...

The buzz around the office is also about our new position as a Trust Provider for ebay on line marketplace, ProjectGood.com. Some of our clients, partners and members have applied for our "Accredited Good Partner Status" with more in the pipeline.

The other thing we're getting excited about is "Formulating for Development". It means that minimum percentages of active ingredients are included in cosmetic formulations to ensure equitable returns to primary producers.

We're also gearing up for the Spring trade shows: BioFach, Natural Products West, InCosmetics, Vitafoods and others. Some new articles due out soon, and fresh new brocures and literature: it's all pretty busy at PhytoTrade!