Commercialization of Baobab Fruit Products as an Exemplary NTFP: Lessons Learned from Local to Global Markets

Wild forest food resources are becoming popular, and products are increasingly entering modern food supply chains. Fruit from the baobab tree offers an excellent case study in the transformation of how a food once associated with the poor has become popular in wealthy countries because of its health benefits. This transformation has had consequences not only on resource demand, but also on its supply chain organization and product quality. To facilitate the jump into international markets, various innovations as well as a variety of actors and institutions in the global South and the global North were necessary, focusing both on the production side to achieve the high-quality standards demanded as well as on the consumption side to make baobab popular amongst new consumers. Since most of these developments were pushed bottom-up using external support, there is a need to strengthen the institutional framework and enabling environment, to further foster the production of high-quality and ethically sourced products and contribute to rural development. Katie Meinhold will discuss these developments generally, using baobab fruit products as an example, focusing on local markets, as well as how baobab overcame challenges faced by most NTFPs in gaining access to formal international markets.