Country's Sap Among the Best in the World
September 26, 2006
Country's Sap Among the Best in the World. Check it out:(The Nation (Kenya) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The opening of a commercial aloe processing factory in Baringo this month removes the trade from just a few well-connected people to hundreds of local farmers.
Trade in aloe was banned through a presidential decree and listing on appendix (II) of CITES 17 years ago. But an estimated 300 tonnes of the plant extract are still exported illegally from the country every year.
"This ends up in South Africa where it is re-packaged and re-exported to Europe, Asia and North America," says Kenya Forestry Research Institute's head of the Biospecting and Intellectual Property Coordinator, Dr Kavaka Watai.
The black market - a thriving multi-million shilling trade - has been going on for decades, complete with its own chain of producers, middlemen, transporters and exporters, but who disguise their products as natural gum.
The ban was, however, never gazetted to give it legal teeth. In the absence of this, punishment for those caught trading in aloe products (usually exported as boiled bitters or crystals) was confiscation of the items.
But the worst impact has been discouraging investors and farmers who, lucrative as the aloe-based cosmetics industry is, have shied away from putting their resources in it due to CITES restrictions and lack of regulations.
The global demand for aloe gum is estimated at over 1,000 tonnes. Kenya's informal trade exports 300 tonnes a year, while South Africa produces 600 tonnes and Venezuela and India about 100 tonnes. Mr Watai says the country can produce 1,600 tonnes.
"The global demand for aloe gel is estimated at $80 million but trade in derived products is estimated at $110 billion. We may not earn all this money but it will contribute to poverty reduction and wealth creation, especially in the arid regions."
Three years ago, a lobby - Kenya Aloe Working Group (KAWG) - comprising researchers, farmers and State agencies like Kefri, National Museums of Kenya and regulator KWS, was formed to promote domestic propagation of commercial aloes.
So far, aloe nurseries and plantations have been established in Baringo, Laikipia, Taita Taveta and West Pokot by individuals, communities and institutions like Kefri and Nature Kenya.
KWS has proposed to set up 10 pilot utilisation blocks in areas with adequate densities of aloes, especially in Laikipia, Isiolo, Marsabit, Samburu, Wajir and West Pokot where controlled non-detrimental harvesting can be undertaken as an incentive to communities to conserve their range lands.
The beauty of aloe herbs is that one plant can be harvested several times over a long period.
The idea, says Mr Fred Kihara, chairman of the Kenya Aloe Working Group, is to have a thriving market selling local aloes as a brand name to compete with exotic ones like Aloe Vera, Aloe Barbadensis and Aloe Ferox.
Some 57 species of aloe, known locally as thukurui (Gikuyu), sukuroi (Maasai), subri (Somali), among others, grow naturally in Kenya, mostly in semi-arid areas. Some of the species (specifically Aloe Turkanenis and Aloe Secundiflora) have been found to possess similar chemical composition to Aloe Vera - the most successfully commercialised species.
Although Aloe Vera-based gums have traditionally been sold as having a higher content of the active ingredient, aloin, studies have since shown the Kenyan species (Aloe Secundiflora and Aloe Turkanensis) have comparable aloin content. Indeed, the Kenyan gums have higher contents of other ingredients - aloe resin, aloesin and aloenin - used in cosmetics industries.
The new factory, Baringo Aloe Bio-enterprise, is in an area estimated to have over two million commercial indigenous wild aloes, namely Aloe Secundflora and Aloe Turkanensis, which are the main source of commercial aloe bitter gum in Kenya.
Early this year, KWS released guidelines on harvesting, licensing, trading and exploitation of aloe in a sustainable way.
Aloe extracts are used in the manufactures of drugs, cosmetics and a health drink produced by Golden Products in Southern Africa (Golden Life Aloe Vera-plus).
Aloe has been used throughout the ages to cure headaches, stomach upsets and many other ailments. In Kenya, it is traditionally used to treat burns and cuts, acne and skin disorder, stomach upsets, hair loss and skin ailments.
Doctors rediscovered aloe vera in the 1930s, when it was found to heal radiation burns due to X-rays, after other methods met with little success. It did the same for atomic fallout victims a decade later, following the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings.
The extract is also used to give trauma victims the fluid they need to stay alive until they can get blood transfusion. These include soldiers wounded on the battlefield and who have lost several pints of blood - they can be injected with a small amount of extract from aloe vera. The extract quickly diffuses through the bloodstream and multiplies the effectiveness of the blood remaining in the system.
Aloe vera extract is now part of First Aid medical products being marketed to the U.S military for precisely this purpose.
Scientists have also been looking at the extract's ability to treat internal inflammatory diseases like irritable bowel syndrome.
Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)
Copyright 2006 The Nation (Kenya). Distributed by Allafrica Global Media.
Related Tags: kenya, Kenya, tonnes, extract, products, estimated
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