ZimTrade estimates that Zimbabwe has about five million baobab trees, four million of them on communal land, mostly in low-lying dry regions including the Zambezi Valley in Matabeleland, Mashonaland, Masvingo and Manicaland. The harvest runs from April to September, when few other income sources are available. ZimTrade lists baobab powder at US$20 to US$40 per kilogram on international markets and baobab oil at US$80 to US$100 or more per litre, while unprocessed cracked fruit sells locally for around US$1 per 20-litre tin.
Africanews reported in September 2024 that pickers still struggle to see that value. One picker, Loveness Bhitoni, said prices offered are "extremely low", sometimes 50 cents to a dollar for a bucket, and that middlemen sometimes offer cornmeal in exchange for fruit. Local councillor Kingstone Shero said "the buyers are imposing prices on us", and development economist Prosper Chitambara said the people buying "have greater leverage".
What Takura Trust is doing
Our Harvesting Amarula and Baobab Fruit in Zimbabwe project is annual and ongoing. Nura Organica (www.nura.org) trains harvesters and buys, processes and markets natural products on an ongoing basis, so harvesters sell into a known price and quality standard. The Baobab and Amarula Processing Hub adds clean, food-safe processing so that more of the price paid by final buyers stays in the community. Donors and investors are invited to co-fund equipment and collection points.
