Before the end of the year, africrops! is expanding its product range once again and now offers sustainably sourced baobab oil with a range of health benefits.

Sustainably produced baobab oil from Tanzania

Over the years, africrops! has established a local network of close and reliable partners in Tanzania Last month, our Managing Director, Meinolf Kuper, visited our local partners, advising them on the process of producing baobab oil.

Producing baobab oil is quite work-intensive. After the harvest, the baobab fruits from certified organic wild growth are opened and the contents is separated into fruit powder and seeds. The seeds are then pressed into oil using the cold press method. To make 1 liter of oil, more than 20 kg of seeds are needed.

This year’s harvest of baobab took place in July and August with more than 100 families and small farmers in the rural areas of Dodoma collecting the fruits. As a result, these people were able to generate employment and to earn an additional income in an otherwise sparse environment.

Baobab skin protection oil – for beautiful and healthy skin

The oil is known especially for its moisturising and anti-inflammatory properties. With a high content of essential fatty acids, baobab oil moisturises, regenerates the tissue and protects the skin from moisture loss. It cares for rough hands, cracked fingernails and makes dull hair silky and shiny again. Its calming effect promotes the healing process of skin diseases such as psoriasis, eczema, allergies or acne, as well as inflammations and sunburn.

When used as a massage oil, baobab oil is particularly invigorating and leaves a wonderful feeling of elasticity, freshness and smoothness on the skin. In addition, the oil has a high content of antioxidants and prevents the development of wrinkles and stretch marks.

The Essence of Africa offers baobab oil in attractive 100ml glass bottles in our online shop and well-stocked Alnatura stores.

Are you a retailer and would like to sell baobab oil in your store? Or would you like to process baobab oil further, creating your own products? Please click here for an individual offer.

The “BAOFOOD“ project funded by the German federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, is investigating the application possibilities of the Baobab tree, with the aim of improving the food supply in Africa. In fact, a research network of public and private actors was created, which is coordinated by the University of Rhein-Waal. africrops! is helping herby to build of a local economy and in the scientific field. 

 

The extensive and already well-established producer network of africrops! provides a promising approach to building local structures for the marketing of baobab foods. Building on this, africrops! aims to build up a global sales network for Baobab food to bring foreign trade to the forefront and on equal footing. Due to the long experience of africrops! with the raw material Baobab, scientific partners are also supported in the formulation of research questions.

The BAOFOOD project includes comprehensive research activities on the benefits of the Baobab tree as a food product and the optimal handling along the entire value chain, with particular emphasis on sustainability. This includes exploration of the biology and ecology of the baobab tree and the geographical coverage of trees using digital technology. Furthermore, extensive research on the production and optimization of food using traditional and modern methods, local marketing, measuring the contribution of baobab products to nutrition – and income situation of the population, as well as market analyzes in Kenya and Sudan is performed.

The project manager responsible for the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Professor Darr and other university colleagues met with Meinolf Kuper and Dr. Andreas Wesselmann, two of the three managing directors of africrops!. All the details of the cooperation were discussed during this meeting. The entire network of partners consists of various research institutions, NGOs as well as companies from Germany, Kenya, Sudan, Malawi and UK.

In addition, both africrops! representatives gave the students the opportunity to learn more about “Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness – opportunities and challenges in Africa – the example of africrops! GmbH “. The lecture was very well attended and was followed by international students and curious observers with keen interest.

 

More about the project Baofood:

• baofood.de
• https://www.hochschule-rhein-waal.de/de/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/startschuss-fuer-das-forschungsprojekt-baofood

 

Press articles„africrops! @ Rhein Waal“:

• http://baofood.de/visit-africrops-rhine-waal-university/