Aug 18, 2026 |
The baobab harvesters of Nhamassonge, in Guro district, set out in groups of two to five at four in the morning to be the first to reach fruit that belongs to whoever picks it up.
As FAO in Mozambique reports, which followed the Association of Women Baobab Collectors, organised in small groups, they seek to increase the efficiency of the work and to ensure safety along the journey of almost an hour that separates the village from the trees.
The departure time follows a practical rule. There is no ownership of the baobabs, which are a shared resource, and the fruit belongs to whoever arrives first. When the wind blows hard during the night, the malambe falls, and the first to arrive collect more.
According to the same organisation, each woman manages to gather between 70 and 150 kilograms of fruit a day during the season. The income goes directly into the household economy, into food, school fees and building materials, and it is common for it to be used to put up the family home.
Once collected, the malambe dries for about a month on raised wooden racks, is transported to the town of Guro for a first stage of processing and ends up in Chimoio, where the pulp is turned into powder. Thirty five women make up the association, supported by Fundação Micaia, and they supply Baobab Products Mozambique.
The malambe has been part of the local diet for generations, eaten fresh, mixed into porridge or turned into yoghurt. It hangs from the branches in a hard shell and contains seeds surrounded by a dry, floury pulp that is the part with the greatest commercial value.
According to the Knowledge Centre for Organic Agriculture in Africa, that pulp is rich in vitamin C, iron and calcium and has proven antioxidant properties, characteristics that underpin international demand. The fruit is also traditionally used in the preparation of drinks throughout the dry zone of Africa.
The choice to collect only fallen fruit, without damaging the trees, is pointed to by FAO as a practice already aligned with sustainability criteria. The dependence on existing trees has a biological explanation. The baobab takes between 16 and 23 years to bear fruit and is not grown in plantations, with each tree producing around 1500 fruits a year.
Also according to the Knowledge Centre for Organic Agriculture in Africa, Baobab Products Mozambique was set up in 2015 with the support of Fundação Micaia and has become one of the leading African exporters of organic baobab powder, having bought around 400 tonnes of pulp and seed in 2019.
The work of the association is followed under two cross border projects between Mozambique and Zimbabwe, the Miombo Woodlands project and the agricultural value chains and trade development project, both funded by Italy through the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and implemented by FAO in support of the Mozambican Government.
Photo: FAO/Luis Tato
