“Africa is ascending!”
(Submitted to In-Cosmetics Global, London, 4-6 April 2017)
Africa is recognised as one of the wealthiest biodomes of plant life in the world and has a wealth of botanicals well suited in the cosmetic market. So why are these products so unknown in the European (and international) product design portfolios?
Adolf Joubert, CEO of Afrinatural, one of the London exhibitors this year, reports as follows “I sense it to be a combinations of fear of the unknown and uncertainty that has sustained this ignorance for so long. Indigenous African companies like ourselves have been successfully involved in sourcing botanicals form all over Africa for many years. Over the last few years Afrinatural has ventured into sourcing pressed oils & butters in the same way. Slowly international buyers are learning to trust entities like ourselves to “bridge the gap into the unknown Africa””.
As Lucy Whitehouse (?) commented a short while back – “Africa is ascending!” And opening up interesting new propositions for product developers and, eventually, to discerning retailers.
As a bonus, rural communities in Africa are experiencing that trading has much more sustainable benefit to them than the traditional, colonially driven aid programmes. This also fits snugly into the theme of In-Cosmetics Global for this exhibition – Sustainability.
Joubert is challenging company executives and retail pressure-groups to open their minds to these new possibilities, to be bold and enter into discussions with those companies at the exhibition that can assist in introducing and opening up the “wealth of Africa” for them.
References -
- Mintel on ‘ascending Africa’ and its implications for European beauty by Lucy Whitehouse – published in In Cosmetics Design – Europe, 29 Nov 2016.
- Why in-cosmetics Global is focusing on sustainability By Simon Pitman, In Cosmetics Design – Europe, 22-Feb-2017
- When will African Ingredients get the attention they deserve? – published in NutraIngedients-USA.com, 8 Mar 2012