ABioSA boosted the quality and integrity of high-value Baobab and Marula oils with novel testing and technology.
Adulteration of indigenous oils through dilution erodes consumer trust, forces genuine producers out of the market, and impacts communities which rely on the trade for livelihoods.
A successful Honeybush community pilot brought a different dimension to community inclusion in the Honeybush value chain. From June to August 2023 a series of facilitated community workshops were held in the southern Cape with participation from national and provincial government, Khoe Khoe indigenous leadership, community leadership, local community members (elders, youth and women), wild harvesters, local processors, traditional healers and knowledge holders.
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ABioSA worked with partners to ensure the success of the 2nd African Biotrade Festival (ABF) in Johannesburg in September 2025, building on the first ABF in 2023.
ABF is a vibrant marketplace attended by investors, researchers, buyers and innovators from the food, fragrance, flavours, ingredients and cosmetics sectors, biotrade producers, suppliers and communities.
ABioSA supported development of a strategy for Marula fruit products to gain access to new global markets, starting with the European Union. This builds on many years of work by ABIOSA to build the Marula fruit sector.
South African producers currently only have certification to export Marula oil into Europe.
Financial support from ABioSA helped emerging Zimbabwean business Afrikan Ornamentals attain organic certification, register trademarks and expand its product range.
The business manufactures and supplies natural plant ingredients, mainly indigenous vegetable oils for the cosmetics, personal care and cosmeceutical sectors.
ABioSA supported a small Limpopo biotrade business as part of its SME development strategy. Mor Nutrition Products is a women-led community-based enterprise growing Moringa in rural Limpopo province to make herbal tea blends for the hospitality sector and health shops.
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A new quality management system (QMS) helped Agulhas Honeybush Tea boost productivity, sales and customer service.
The women-led business cultivates and processes four varieties of Cyclopia on a family farm near Bredasdorp in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
ABioSA helped to boost the international career of Dr Rhoda Malgas, and supported her work with local communities, youth and traditional knowledge holders.
Rhoda was a PhD candidate and lecturer at Stellenbosch University when ABioSA invited post-graduate students to apply to present their biotrade-related research to the first African Biotrade Festival in September 2023.
During its first phase ABioSA supported the creation of detailed sector development plans (SDP) for key biotrade species. The project is now supporting South African and regional organisations with their implementation of the SDPs, including the Buchu Association, the African Baobab Alliance in collaboration with BioInnovation Zimbabwe, and the South African Honeybush Tea Association in collaboration with Garden Route Biosphere Reserve (GRBR).
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