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 years to bear fruit and remain foraged rather than cultivated. Tens of thousands of rural people like Bhitoni have rallied to meet this growing need.
The African Baobab Alliance, spanning the continent’s baobab-producing countries, predicts that over a million rural African women could soon reap economic benefits from this fruit. The alliance trains locals in food safety and encourages safer collection methods, avoiding the dangers of climbing these colossal trees. Still, many, especially men, risk it.
Native to Africa, the baobab is dubbed the “tree of life” for its remarkable resilience, thriving from South Africa to Kenya, Sudan, and Senegal. Zimbabwe alone harbors about 5 million baobab trees, according to Zimtrade, the government export agency. Despite its ancient consumption in Africa, the baobab’s benefits long went unnoticed elsewhere.
Gus Le Breton, a pioneer in the baobab industry, recalls its nascent days. “Baobab did not develop into a globally traded and known superfood by accident,” he said, highlighting the years spent on regulatory, safety, and toxicology testing to convince the European Union and United States authorities to approve it. “It was ridiculous because the baobab fruit has been consumed in Africa safely for thousands and thousands of years,” Le Breton noted.
The U.S. legalized baobab powder imports in 2009, a year after the EU.
Yet broadening the palates of foreign consumers required repeated trips across Western and Asian countries. “No one had ever heard of it, they didn’t know how to pronounce its name. It took us a long time,” Le Breton recalled.
The name is pronounced BAY-uh-bab. Today, together with China, the U.S.
and Europe represent the largest markets for baobab powder. The Dutch government’s Center for the Promotion of Imports predicts the global market could reach $10 billion by 2027. Le Breton’s association anticipates a 200% growth in global demand between 2025 and 2030, eyeing increased consumption among Africa’s health-conscious urbanites.
Major companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi have launched product lines featuring baobab. In Europe, the powder is celebrated for its “real star qualities,” enhancing beverages, cereals, yogurt, snack bars, and more. A kilogram of baobab powder retails for around 27 euros ($30) in Germany, while a 100-milliliter bottle of baobab beauty oil can fetch 25 pounds ($33) in the United Kingdom.
A Zimbabwean processing plant illustrates the burgeoning industry where baobab pulp is meticulously bagged and tagged to trace each harvest back to its harvester. The plant even converts the hard shells into biochar, a free organic compost aid for farmers. Despite the booming market, harvesters like Bhitoni can only dream of affording the commercial products resulting from their toil.
Bhitoni earns 17 cents for each kilogram of baobab fruit, often spending up to eight hours a day under the scalding sun. “The fruit is in demand, but the trees did not produce much this year, so sometimes I return without filling up a single sack,” she said. Bhitoni needs five sacks of fruit to afford a 10-kilogram bag of cornmeal.
Urban buyers in Zimbabwe exploit the hunger-stricken locals, offering cornmeal in exchange for seven large buckets of cracked baobab fruit. “People have no choice because they have nothing,” explained Kingstone Shero, the local councilor. “The buyers are imposing prices on us and we don’t have the capacity to resist because of hunger.
” Le Breton is optimistic about better prices as the market grows. “I think that the market has grown significantly, (but) I don’t think it has grown exponentially. It’s been fairly steady growth,” he said.
“I believe at some point that it will increase in value as well. And at that point, then I think that the harvesters will really start to be earning some serious income from the harvesting and sale of this truly remarkable fruit,” he emphasized. Meanwhile, Zimtrade recognizes the low prices paid to baobab pickers and seeks partnerships with rural women to establish processing plants.
The challenging situation persists due to the limited bargaining power of fruit pickers, including children, observed Prosper Chitambara, a development economist in Harare. On a recent day, Bhitoni journeyed from one baobab tree to another, scrutinizing each fruit. She left the smaller ones for wildlife like baboons and elephants—a longstanding tradition.
“It is tough work, but the buyers don’t even understand this when we ask them to increase prices,” she said..
