Takunda Maodza Manicaland Bureau Chief

A group of villagers in Gudyanga area, Chimanimani, is value adding the baobab fruit to produce a special coffee that sells in renowned big supermarkets across the country.

They also press baobab fruit seed to produce oil used as hair food. They claim it also treats skin diseases. From baobab powder, the villagers produce coolies (popularly known as freezits).  The villagers have established a company, Bao Mix Private Limited, and boasts of equipment that makes 1 500 coolies an hour.

In an interview with The Herald last week in Gudyanga village, Bao Mix marketing manager Mr Zakeo Nhachi narrated how they established the enterprise in 2017 with assistance from the European Union (EU) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

“We are Bao Mix Private Limited company,” he said. “We started after a survey was carried out to establish the amount of baobab fruits in his area.”  We had workshops with Forest Forces sponsored by the European Union and FAO.

“There was community capacitating programme in which the community was enlightened that locally available resources could change their lives. We were encouraged to start business ventures using the locally available resources like baobab fruits.”

Mr Nhachi said they brainstormed on how to value add the baobab fruit.

“We realised that we have a lot of baobab fruits in our area and we resolved to add value to the fruit,” he said. “This is not a new concept as our forefathers used to do the same, but they were only doing it for consumption and not as commercial enterprise.

“We resolved to do it in a modern way. The EU and FAO then assisted us procure the machinery that we have now. We applied for the assistance and we work as a team of five. We started this project in 2017. We make coffee, coolies, oil and baobab powder. Oil helps in curing skin diseases and it is also used as hair oil. Baobab powder has a lot of Victim C.”

They buy the baobab fruit all over Manicaland province. “We buy baobab fruits from the community,” said Mr Nhachi.

“We feed our products into markets as far as Checheche, Tanganda, Hotsprings, Chakohwa, Mutare and even Beitbridge. We also sell our oil in areas like Bulawayo, Mutare and Harare.”