Since childhood, Loveness Bhitoni has collected fruit from the mammoth baobab trees surrounding her homestead in Zimbabwe to diversify her family’s corn and millet diet. Now at 50, Bhitoni never considered these trees a potential income source—until now. Climate change-induced droughts have ravaged her crops, but the world’s growing appetite for baobab fruit, revered as a natural health food, shines a light on the ancient trees as a beacon of hope.
This drought-resistant marvel has become Bhitoni’s lifeline. Bhitoni rises before dawn, navigating thorny terrain barefoot, risking wildlife encounters to forage baobab fruit. The hard-shelled bounty from these ancient trees is harvested and sold to industrial food processors or individual urban buyers.
The baobab trade, budding in Bhitoni’s region since 2018, once helped cover school fees and clothing in the small northeastern town of Kotwa. Today, amid the severe drought exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon, it’s a matter of survival. “We are only able to buy corn and salt,” Bhitoni lamented after a grueling day of harvest.
“Cooking oil is a luxury, because the money is simply not enough. Sometimes I spend a month without buying a bar of soap. I can’t even talk of school fees or children’s clothes.
” Global demand for baobab products has skyrocketed, turning rural African regions rich in these trees into critical source markets. Baobab trees, known for surviving harsh conditions, take over 20 yea.