Baobab hits the news

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/

Mangosteens are soooo yesterday...

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?

the latest...

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!

Baobab flavoured wellness packs?

Hi Phytotraders, my first ever attempt at a blog. Here we go. I'll be honest and admit this is as much for my benefit as yours. It's 2007 and we can't be luddites forever. Time to get with the programme! Given that I'm the CEO of this motley crew, I suppose I should be leading by example.

(Interestingly my 2003 version of Word doesn't recognise the word "blogging" in its internal dictionary and helpfully suggests that I perhaps meant to type "slogging" or "flogging". Perhaps I did.)

Not quite knowing where one starts with a blog, I thought I'd begin by simply sharing what's on my mind today - the latest issue of South African Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Review (over which I ate my lunch today!). Although it's not actually dedicated to naturals, this issue could easily be, given how much coverage there is of naturals in it.

In amongst articles on Bioharmony (a PhytoTrade member), Enaleni (a BEE shareholder in Bioharmony), nutritional supplements for HIV management and one on African hair care, there was a piece about a new "wellness nutritional pack" that has been launched in SA for immune boosting. The basic ingredient is a corn-soya blend porridge mix, which is the same stuff that is commonly used in supplementary feeding programmes around Africa. However, in this instance it will be selling on the open market rather than being distributed freely by relief organisations. Meaning, in other words, that it will actually have to taste good enough for people to fork out their own cash and buy it.

The target market is obviously rural areas, as one of the ingredients is a water purifying agent (often a problem with a porridge).

From what I could read, though, there isn't any flavouring added to the product. Anyone who's eaten a corn-soya blend can tell you that it tastes like cardboard. If you're going to sell it on the open market, you'll probably need it to taste just a little more exciting than that.

Which, of course, brings us to baobab. This is a fruit powder that is a natural source of minerals and vitamins, is widely available in Africa, is already known to most rural African consumers, and is flavourful and tasty. If I was the one trying to sell this product, I'd definitely be looking for something to add to the mix to help it sell, and I'm very sure baobab would do the job.

Mark my words - one day they'll all have baobab in them. (Or marula, of course!). You read it here first...

There, my first blog. How was it?!

Gus