Oil extraction from local forestry resources (Baobab, Soump…)

The product that we will offer on the market is natural vegetable oil extracted by pressure from baobab seeds and in short-term oil from “soump” , mango… We will adopt a quality and fair trade approach.

My country have a huge potential of under-valorized natural resources, highly asked by cosmetic industries in North countries who use them as raw materials in manufacturing cosmetics.

The fair trade approach that we will adopt interest cosmetic industries who share more and more often the logic of fair trade and sustainable development.

Current suppliers have enormous difficulties to satisfy the demand in quality and quantity. That’s why we are sure that our company will be able to take market shares and to be a reliable supplier by setting up a system of anticipation to avoid exhaustion of stock.

The extraction process for baobab oil is :

Step Material

Grading the seeds Pan
Washing the seeds Rotary washing tank
Drying the seeds Grid for drying
Husking the seeds Husker
Steam heating Burner, pot and “couscoussier”
Pressing Press
Decantation Inox tank
Filtration Paper filter
Bottling Inox tank, bottles

These different steps will ask to hire 5 employees :
x 1 employee in charge of supplying (raw materials)
x 1 multi-purpose employee in charge of grading, washing, drying and
steam heating
x 2 employees in charge of husking, pressing, filtration and bottling
x 1 sales person

This oil will be sold to cosmetic industries established in North countries. We are already in business connection with P2F, through AFIA from UNITIS group (European lobby for using natural raw materials in cosmetics).

The raw materials we will mainly use are :
x Seeds of baobab trees
x Seeds of “soump”
x Seeds of mangoes

These raw materials from plants are available during a determinate period in the year. That’s why we will contract with rural associations specialized in local resources exploitation, and we will lay in stocks to avoid exhaustion of stock.

We will offer quality products to our customers (HACCP plan) and ratio quality/price will be attractive (we want to export but we also want to sell to people from Senegal). We will also respect specifications seeked by our custumers, as well as terms of delivery.

To achieve our customers we will work with middlemen established in Senegal : companies (AFIA), supermarkets (Le consommer sénégalais), shops (in hotels).

We will give an essential size to communication. We will :
x Use internet through our website (www.baobab-des-saveurs.com),
x list our product in the African supermarket
x attendance to trade fairs and exhibitions.

Among our main competitors we can mention CODINA who offers baobab seed oil, but not at the same price. We will apply a market penetration strategy to win market shares. Our product will be a quality product because we will put in practice an HACCP plan.

Our product is better because we will put in practice a fair trade approach to give a fair price to our suppliers and because we will diversify our offer : baobab oil but also “soump” oil, mango oil…

The quality and the fair trade approach are making our product unrivalled. We will communicate on our fair trade approach in order that every implicated actor can take advantage of this sector. This step will make it possible to perpetuate this activity and to motivate each actor involved in the process.

I have a good knowledge of processes for natural oils extraction.

I also know areas that product raw materials, so our company will avoid problems of supplying.

I will study specifications to secure quality and palliate depletions in supplying. I will sign PPP (Public Private Partnership) contracts with our main suppliers (the suppliers, our company and the NGO or Programs which help the suppliers).

I will use our network, developed in the wall West Africa region, particularly in Mali, to guarantee the continuity in our supplying.

In my track record of contractor, I have tested things that bring successes and failures :
+ Successes :
x Development of our network : use of these contacts
x Experimentation of the extraction of baobab oil : technical feasibility and
fitting with standards
+Failures :
x Difficulties to obtain the agreement to sell our food products in Senegal :
confrontation to corruption
x Non-respect of contrats on quantity : awareness for the new activity :
diversification of suppliers

The setting-up of the oil factory will generate positive impacts on economical and environmental levels.

On economical level, the women associations, we are working with, will be correctly incite and their purchasing power will be increased. Furthermore we will submit a distribution key of gains to realize communitarian investments (purchase of a mill to reduce women working hours, repair the pump of the drilling in the village, connect the village to the water distributing network and make it possible for populations to have an access to drinking water…).

Women will have more time and will be able to develop their businesses or learn functional alphabetisation to initiate a better management of their activities.

This project will generate the creation of 5 direct positions for the fist year (2008). The next year (2009) we will employ 3 new persons and we will finally offer 2 vacant positions the third year (2010).

As concerns indirect positions, the women association of Diagane Sader (Senegal) brings together more than 800 persons that will work in the baobab sector. We will also work with middlemen as drivers, local labor force for fruits harvest, loaders.

On environmmental level, local ressources will be better preserved because populations will be better sensitized on the importance to protect resources. The cutting of trees as source of energy will be leaved totally and replaced by “sakanal” cookers that need only a small quantity of dead wood.