Press release: 7 September 2001
SANProTA breaks new ground in natural products sector
In a development likely to benefit thousands of rural communities across southern Africa, a new trade association for rural producers in the natural products sector was launched last night at the Botswana International Trade Fair in Gaborone. Speaking at the launch of SANProTA, the Southern African Natural Products Trade Association, Tswelopele Moremi, the Permanent Secretary at Botswana’s Ministry of Trade, Industry, Wildlife and Tourism, welcomed the initiative as a bold and visionary attempt to bring rural producers, and their products, into the rapidly expanding global market for natural products.
Noting that natural resources have long played an important role in the livelihoods of rural people in the region, Moremi remarked that this was the first attempt, on a regional level, to systematically develop business opportunities from natural products.
In her welcoming address, Mpho Mosate, from the Botswana organisation Veld Products Research and Development, said “SANProTA is an association representing community producers involved in natural products trade. Its members are drawn from five countries in southern Africa: Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and it is the first example of such an association in Africa.”
“SANProTA has many aims”, she said. “Primarily it seeks to enable poor rural communities to generate meaningful incomes from the sustainable utilisation of natural resources. But more than that, SANProTA is trying to bring rural producers from traditional, subsistence production into export markets.”
“Through a wide range of activities, including market information systems, product research and development, trade promotion, direct technical support to producers and the brokering of collaborative production arrangements, SANProTA will link producers to one of the world’s fastest growing market sectors, and in the process, it is hoped, make them a truly integrated part of the global economy.”
Commenting on the collaborative nature of SANProTA, Board Chairman Wisdom Malongo, from Malawi, said “the barriers that prevent rural African communities from engaging in the global market for natural products are far too big for any of us to negotiate on our own. We have no choice but to work together.”
“We believe that we are breaking new ground here tonight,” he went on. “For the first time, we have raised the profile of natural products-based businesses to a level comparable with other rural enterprises. For the first time, we have consciously moved beyond the boundaries of a single country to embrace the wide spectrum of opportunities available within the region. And for the first time, we have begun to get serious about the business of natural products.”
Asked about the possible environmental impacts of large-scale commercial harvesting of natural products, Gus Le Breton, the Association’s Chief Executive Officer, from Zimbabwe, said “natural products are products deriving from naturally occurring plant resources, harvested from the wild by rural producers. Of course there is a very real risk that their commercialisation could lead to unsustainable exploitation. But one of SANProTA’s primary objectives is to promote better environmental management. Commercialisation adds value to natural resources. This added value creates economic incentives for rural communities to actively engage in sustainable management.”
He described some of the certification mechanisms SANProTA will use to guarantee environmental sustainability, and emphasised that many of SANProTA’s founding members themselves come from strong environmental backgrounds. “Ultimately,” he said, “our markets demand proof of sustainable production, and our businesses depend on a sustainable supply, so we have little choice but to ensure that all our products are derived from environmentally sustainable sources.”
SANProTA’s launch follows two years of preparatory studies and discussions within the region. With financial support from IFAD (the International Fund for Agricultural Development), and CEF, (the Community Empowerment Facility of the Popular Coalition for the Eradication of Poverty), a large number of stakeholders have been involved in the design process, and the members are confident that they have a viable and innovative approach to rural economic empowerment.
“Clearly our success can only be judged by the volumes of trade we generate, and we are just beginning,” said Cyril Lombard, a prominent Namibian natural products expert, and founding member of SANProTA. “However, SANProTA is uniquely well positioned. Its members are already producing a wide range of products, including confectionary, cosmetic oils, health care products, herbal teas, jams, nutritional supplements and medicinals. By pooling our resources and channelling our efforts in a co-ordinated manner, we cannot fail to make a substantial improvement to rural livelihoods.”
“This is a really big opportunity,” he added, “and rural producers in Southern Africa will be looking to their service providers, and their donors, to help them generate the expected results - significant levels of trade in their natural products and indigenous resources.”
Asked to comment, while perusing the SANProTA stand at the Botswana International Trade Fair, David Hughes, an international trader in natural products, said “this is exactly what we have been crying for. Many of the products our clients seek can only be harvested from the wild. I can’t organise hundreds of people spread across thousands of square kilometres to collect, for example, marula nuts. Until now, if anyone asked me for marula nuts, I would have had to tell them I can’t supply, even though they are found all over the region. Hopefully SANProTA will change this. If it does, the opportunities are endless. The world is looking to Africa for new and exotic products, and Africa’s stacked full of them. We just haven’t been able to sort out the production.”
For More Information
Contact:
Southern African Natural Products Trade Association
PO Box BE 385, Belvedere, Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel:+263-91-264-107
FAX:+263-4-704-178
Internet: info@phytotradeafrica.com
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