No.  On principle, we do not support the cultivation of African plant species outside their natural environment. Our goal is to help African producers generate income from the commercial use of their own natural resources. If we export seeds to other countries, and the plants are grown there instead, it will deprive African producers of an income opportunity.
Note that we also abide by the terms of the international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which prohibits the export of plant genetic material without appropriate authority from the government of source country.

Unfortunately we can’t help you with this, as we do not support cultivation of African species outside their natural range.

We are happy to help where possible, especially if you are undertaking original research relating to one of our focal African species (listed here) and are prepared to share with us the results of your research. Please note, however, that we cannot provide seed samples. Please check our website for further information.

Yes, we have a selection of freeware photos which we will make available to relevant parties on request, and provided that PhytoTrade Africa is fully credited. For further info, please contact us here.
For commercial users, se do also provide exclusive access to high resolution images at a fee of EUR 350 per image. Please contact us for further details.

For practical reasons our efforts are restricted to a small selection of relevant Southern African species that we believe have significant commercial potential, are not under any major ecological threat and will benefit large numbers of African producers. We refer to these as our “focal species”. For a full list of current PhytoTrade Africa focal species, please see here.

No. If it’s not listed as one of our focal species, we don’t deal with it.

In the long-term, we have plans to expand, but we currently only work in southern Africa to provide a focus for our work.  The countries that Southern Africa encompasses are Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

PhytoTrade Africa was set up by ecologists who were looking for ways to promote better environmental management of African plant species. Our theory was that one of the best ways to conserve African species is to give them economic value. That way, rural people have a strong incentive to look after them. So far, our experience has borne this out, and we can already show how some of our focal species have become more locally abundant as a result of people’s efforts to conserve and manage them.
We’re very careful about the species we work with, and we choose only those that are abundant and that can be sustainably produced. We focus almost exclusively on products that are made from fruits and nuts rather than from roots and bark. Harvesting  the fruits and nuts of a tree doesn’t kill it – harvesting the roots and bark can do.
At the same time, we commit our members to sustainable harvesting through signature to our Ethical BioTrade Charter (downloadable here). This Charter obliges members to invest into active conservation activities and regular monitoring of biodiversity impacts of harvesting. Our members are audited on an annual basis for compliance with this Charter.
On top of this, we encourage our members to attain third party certification and verification through organic certification (PhytoTrade is a member of IFOAM, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) and through membership of the Union for Ethical BioTrade.

Our business strategy is to make long term relationships with companies that respect our philosophical approach to rural empowerment and environmental sustainability, and that are able to add value to our products through advanced processing technologies. We call these companies our “commercial partners”.
Although we do work with others, our primary commercial partners at present are Aldivia in France, our partners on lipid oils for cosmetics, and Afriplex  in South Africa, our partners on fruit pulps and botanical extracts for food and cosmetic use.

We are always interested to hear from new potential partners, particularly when they are able to offer innovative value-addition opportunities and technologies. Potential partners must be able to demonstrate that they support our long term social and environmental goals. Increasingly, we will seek to work with partners who are members of the Union for Ethical BioTrade.

Our products all originate from plants harvested in the wild by rural people in Southern Africa.  The distribution map on our website shows the geographical location of each species.

Yes, deliberately so. Rural African women are especially disadvantaged in terms of their access to economic opportunities, and we have a unique opportunity to help them. We do this by carefully selecting species for commercialisation that are traditionally used and controlled by women. That way, when we successfully create markets for products from those species, it is usually women that benefit most. In 2007, over 90% of the producers who supplied PhytoTrade Africa members were women.

Good question. If the standards existed for the species we work with, our members’ products would all be FLO-certified. One day, we hope they will be. Right now there aren’t any FLO standards for our species, and our members can’t therefore get them FLO-certified.
Our guarantee to you, though, is that all our members’ products meet the minimum criteria for Fair Trade. PhytoTrade Africa  is a member of the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT), and is itself an accredited Fair Trade Organisation. Our members all sign up to an Ethical BioTrade charter that commits them to meet Fair Trade standards, and we monitor their compliance on an annual basis.
We are, meanwhile, working with FLO to develop formal Fair Trade standards for our members’ products. As soon as we do, we will be able to offer Fair Trade certified products.

Our members supply partly-processed products which, in most cases, aren’t useable as  ingredients without further processing. Our commercial partners are chosen because they have the value-adding technologies required to transform our products into useable ingredients. As a result, most of our ingredients are actually bought from our commercial partners rather than directly from us. Although some people perceive this as an unnecessary additional cost, this value addition is in fact an essential  part of the production process.

Our commercial partner for lipid oils is a French company, Aldivia. Although we do as much processing of the oils as we can within Southern Africa, they still have to go for further processing to Aldivia in France in order to be made useable. At present, we are working with Aldivia to find ways to transfer the processing technology to Southern Africa. However, this takes careful planning and preparation and will not be completed in 2008.

PhytoTrade Africa is still a young organization, although we’re growing fast. During the period 2004-7, our members sold some US$3,768,000 worth of natural ingredients. Sales have grown consistently at over 60% year.