ProFound has recently concluded a pioneer study on the EU market for wild-sourced botanicals commissioned by the Trade for Development Centre (TDC) of the Belgian Development Agency (BTC), anticipating the growing opportunities for these products in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.
The study on wild botanicals has been carried out within the framework of TDC’s Producer Support Programme, through which financial and technical assistance is provided to producer organisations. TDC aims at economic and social empowerment of small producer organisations, by both enhancing business knowledge and improving their access to markets.
In this context, the study focuses on wild-collected medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) which have a potential for livelihoods enhancement and conservation action. Moreover, these species are assessed in terms of sustainable trade and certification schemes available. The countries covered in the study are Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Tanzania, Mozambique and Vietnam, six of the countries in which BTC focuses its activities.
The study Wild-collected botanicals and the EU market can be downloaded from the BTC website.
Our cooperation with BTC does not stop there; a new project is just around the corner, this time focusing on MAPs from Senegal, Mali, Palestinian Territories, Niger, Benin, Rwanda, Burundi, Algeria, Uganda and Congo (D.R).