Moringa Initiative grows moringa on a farm outside Lusaka, Zambia. (Supplied to How we made it in Africa by Moringa Initiative)
Entrepreneurs across Africa are turning superfoods like fonio, moringa, baobab, hibiscus, and teff into thriving businesses, tapping into global demand while creating opportunities for local farmers.
1. Ghana’s Amaati scales up fonio production for local and global buyers
Fonio, a gluten-free grain with numerous nutritional benefits, has been cultivated as a subsistence crop in West Africa for thousands of years. Recognising its potential, Ghanaian company Amaati began working with smallholder farmers to grow fonio on abandoned farmland in the north of the country. After facing initial challenges in selling raw fonio, the company established a processing plant to produce packaged fonio cereal and flour, ready for end-user consumption.
Amaati’s products, branded as DIM Fonio, are sold nationwide and supplied to customers in the hospitality industry. The company also exports to Italy, the Netherlands, France, the US, and Canada. Approximately 70% of its production is sold in the local market, with the remaining 30% destined for export.
Read our full interview with Amaati co-founder Abdulai A. Dasana: Company taps into growing demand for fonio
2. Zambian moringa business taps into US and EU demand
Zambia-based farmers Evan and Bernice Kilburn first came across moringa in 2012. Intrigued by its nutritional benefits, they began cultivating the crop on part of their farm. Moringa, a hardy tree that thrives in hot, dry climates, is well-suited to Zambia’s environment.
Their venture, Moringa Initiative, now produces branded moringa products such as seed oil, tea, powder, and capsules, which are sold in supermarkets and pharmacies in Zambia and South Africa and exported internationally.
While Moringa Initiative was initially focused on building a retail brand, the company has found significant success in the wholesale market, which now generates the majority of its revenue. “Putting a product into retail does come with significant costs: packaging, distribution, advertising and marketing. It helped once we shifted to wholesale where these costs are lower and the income could supplement spend on the retail end,” explains director Lloyd Abernethy. “The Zambian and South African markets are only so big. We’ve now established good partnerships for wholesale in the US and EU.”
Read our full interview with Moringa Initiative director Lloyd Abernethy: Superfood business tapping into health trend in Africa and abroad
3. Turning Zimbabwe’s baobab fruit into an export business
Baobab powder, derived from the fruit of the baobab tree, contains nearly four times the vitamin C of oranges and is rich in essential minerals such as potassium and magnesium. Zimbabwe-based entrepreneur Gus Le Breton co-founded B’Ayoba, a company that produces baobab powder for export to international markets.
Today, B’Ayoba’s supply chain engages over 5,000 rural harvesters. “They all thought I was completely nuts,” Le Breton recalls. “I’d say to rural people, ‘You know, there’s these trees – you have eaten the fruit your whole life – what about selling it?’ And they would just laugh at me and it was like, ‘Who’s ever going to buy this? I mean, they’re free. You can pick them up off the ground. Why would anyone pay money for that?’”.
Listen to our full interview with B’Ayoba co-founder Gus Le Breton: The entrepreneur unlocking baobab’s commercial potential
4. Nigerian hibiscus flowers find global buyers through AgroEknor
Timi Oke is the co-founder and CEO of AgroEknor, a company exporting dried hibiscus flowers grown in Nigeria to global markets, including the US, Mexico, and Europe. He secured his first agricultural trading deal through LinkedIn while still working at a bank in the UK.
Hibiscus, often touted as a superfood, is a flowering plant known for its vibrant, trumpet-shaped blooms. Its dried petals are used to make hibiscus tea, a ruby-red drink prized for its refreshing taste and potential health benefits, including its ability to lower blood pressure. Beyond beverages, hibiscus has applications as a natural food colouring and an ingredient in jams, syrups, and desserts. It is also valued in the pharmaceutical sector for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and in the personal care industry for products like facial scrubs, masks, and hair care treatments.
“We tend to look at commodities where there is no major player already,” Oke explains. “So our priority is niche markets where the market leadership is for the taking.”
Watch our full in-depth interview with AgroEknor CEO Timi Oke: Entrepreneur turns Nigerian superfood into a global export business
5. London banker builds Ethiopian food company
Teff, a tiny grass seed native to Ethiopia, is one of the world’s oldest cultivated crops. Celebrated as a superfood, it is gluten-free and packed with nutrients, including iron, magnesium, manganese, calcium, zinc, and vitamins B and C. Ethiopian elite runner Haile Gebrselassie has even credited teff as a contributor to his athletic success.
Yonas Alemu, a former investment banker turned entrepreneur, is the founder and managing director of Lovegrass Ethiopia, a health food company specialising in products made from teff and other Ethiopian grains. The company’s offerings include pasta, breakfast cereals, pancake mixes, powdered beverages, and snacks. With a factory on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Lovegrass sells its products both locally and to international markets.
Watch our full in-depth interview with Lovegrass Ethiopia managing director Yonas Alemu: The businessman who sold Ethiopian teff pasta to Italians
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