Baobab: new taste for Europe, trade for Africa

If you live in Europe, it could be headed to a smoothie near you. The baobab tree - thick-trunked icon of the African bush - does not look appetising. But European firms may soon be using the pulp of its fruit as a flavouring for cereal bars or drinks, after it won European Commission approval as a novel food.

The decision in July has planted the gourd-like fruit on the product development radar of food processors. Trade and development experts hope that move - a landmark for a wild-harvested fruit - will also plug millions of poor African bush dwellers into a lucrative, sustainable market. A 2007 report for Britain's Natural Resources Institute estimated that in southern Africa alone, harvesting the baobab could generate more than US$1 billion worth of trade a year and employ over 2.5 million households. For centuries, people across Africa have enjoyed the baobab fruit's refreshing vitamin-filled pulp. Naturally dehydrated, it is credited with medicinal properties, ranging from a cure for fever or diarrhoea to a calcium-rich pick-me-up.

Plucked from the gnarled, swollen-trunked baobab trees, the large brown pods covered with a velvety fur are often split by hungry children who suck the pulp as a snack. It could also be used in juices, ice-creams and jams or bakery products. PhytoTrade first applied for novel foods approval - which also covers chemically developed foods - for baobab fruit pulp in 2006.