Africa is growing incredibly fast, but most Western buyers ignore the continent (Photo by SEYLLOU/AFP) (Photo by SEYLLOU/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Cape Town Exhibition Hall good life show Smelled like rooibos, baobab, and something hard to name. Ambition, perhaps. Africa's largest natural foods trade show attracted hundreds of exhibitors this May: kombucha makers working with indigenous South African botanicals, macadamia milk brands operating carbon-negative factories, moringa farmers who started by feeding porridge to orphans and building wellness companies ready for export. I spent two days interviewing the founders. None of them had a lion in their backyard.
That joke, and the fact that it still needs to be made, is the core of why American companies and retailers keep missing Africa. The continent that holds the richest biodiversity of functional plant ingredients on Earth, a consumer market projected to exceed $2.5 trillion by 2030, and seven of the world's twenty fastest growing economies is still processed through the lens of risk and charity rather than partnership and opportunity.
Cosmos Mamunze, international trade expert and co-organiser of the Good Life Show, told me in an interview: “International buyers usually think that there is no quality, no potential in Africa. But this show is proving that it is the other way around. There is a lot of creativity in Africa, there is a lot of innovation, there is potential: the farmers are here, they are keen to grow, they are ready to export. Africa is ready for trade with the rest of the world.”
Why is perception so different from reality?
Data tells a different story than perception. Africa's economies are projected grow 4.2% in 2026Almost twice the speed of the United States. Ethiopia alone is projected to grow by 9.2% this year, according to IMF estimates. by 2030 African middle class population expected to exceed 500 million. Sixty percent of the continent's population is under 25 years of age. McKinsey estimates African consumer spending to reach $2.1 trillion by 2025On track to reach $4 trillion by the end of the decade.
The food sector reflects this rapid growth path. Africa's food and beverage marketIt was valued at $346 billion in 2024, projected to reach $567 billion by 2032, growing at a compound annual rate of 6.34%. Natural ingredients segment growing even faster: Africa natural food flavors market expanding About 7.5 to 9.5% annually by 2035.
still over 60% natural flavor formulation Goods consumed in Africa are still mainly imported from Europe, India and China. American food companies source ingredients from Southeast Asia and South America, but forget about the unique ingredients Africa has to offer. Rooibos grows in only one mountain range on Earth, baobab trees bear fruit throughout the continent that holds 80% of the global supply, and Moringa – recently certified by the World Health Organization as a plant to fight malnutrition – is still treated as an exotic novelty in American wellness corridors.
What materials is the world deprived of?
The founders I met at the Good Life show were not expressing curiosity. They were describing component categories that the global wellness industry is just beginning to understand.
Jacques Van Zyl, co-founder of Culture Lab KombuchaMakes fermented drinks with South African botanicals: buchu, honeybush, confetti bush. “Plants are very powerful,” he told me in an interview, “and there are a lot of them here. We have a very rich floral kingdom if we harness it and access it. It's a shame we don't do that anymore.” He stopped. “Even in South Africa, we have this rich history of medicinal plants and it is slowly but surely disappearing.”
Duhne Liebenberg, founder of namo health At Stilby, it produces products from South Africa's fynbos, a floral kingdom unique to the Western Cape that contains hundreds of species found nowhere else on earth.
“Fynbos plants only grow in South Africa,” he said in an interview. “There is no place in the world where these flowers and plants come from.” Their bestsellers are Cancer Bush Tea and Buchu, which is used with a long history in Khoikhoi traditional medicine to support bladder health and urinary tract. “This is a completely untapped market where people are only now beginning to realize the benefits.”
Fiona Sephton, Founder Stonebridge HerbalArtemisia Afra Farms in the Eastern Cape is one of only seven licensed growers of the plant in South Africa. It is the most widely used medicinal plant in Africa, being an antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal and antiparasitic that is used for respiratory illness, gut health and as general immune support. It is also completely unavailable in the United States.
“It's part of the North-South issue,” Sephton told me in an interview, “where botanists from the South don't get easy access to the North.” To bring it into the EU, it would require 40 years of documented use within European borders, a regulatory catch-22 that no African botanist can satisfy. “Now you can't even get him in to start that clock.”
Africa has unique products: rooibos, baobab, moringa and alternative coffee. I want every American buyer to know that Africa has most of what you need.
Despite the fact that most Americans have never heard of them, key African ingredients like moringa and baobab are gaining steam on the global market. global moringa market It was valued at $10 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $25 billion by 2034. Baobab Market It is on track to nearly double from $4.8 billion to $8.5 billion over the same period. Companies that establish sourcing relationships directly with African farmers and founders now will own the supply chains that everyone else will struggle to access in a decade.
How are African entrepreneurs already solving for scale?
One of the most persistent myths about sourcing from Africa is that it cannot provide sustainability or scale. The founders I met disagreed.
Philippe Moufarige, founder of Giraffe Macadamia and owner of the Amber Mac processing facility in Mpumalanga, working with 150 macadamia farmers and hosting the world's largest macadamia expo: 180 exhibitors, 3,000 visitors, 12 guest speakers annually. Their facility is an approved Costco supplier.
“Every one of our customers raves about the fact that we have the best quality product ever,” he said in an interview. On starting a manufacturing business in South Africa he said, “I found it incredibly easy and straightforward. There is a lack of foreign direct investment here, so when people invest, they look at you very favourably. I haven't had any problems, I haven't had any setbacks. It's been incredibly safe and a very positive and enjoyable experience.”
The co-founder of Mor-Nutrition Products stands in his moringa field
Peacock Nutritious Products
Tshepiso Seloane, co-founder of Peacock Nutritious Productsstarted his moringa company by distributing moringa plants to families so they could take control of their nutrition. She has now distributed 3,000 moringa saplings in her village community and is moving towards what she called “an international wellness brand, a well-known, quality moringa brand” in an interview. She was one of the many entrepreneurs I met who seamlessly incorporated social impact and powerful plant nutrition into their businesses.
The pharmaceutical industry received its initial knowledge from the plant kingdom. It has always been there. On a daily basis, you can live your life through plant-based supplements.
Fatin Bux, founder of Make Everything Beautiful in Cape Town, is a beekeeper for the Western Cape honeybee, a species so distinctive that it cannot legally cross its provincial border without disrupting other hive populations. His bees feed on fynbos. On the question of what it takes to build a startup in South Africa, he had a clear opinion: “Entrepreneurs are resourceful. You can access free resources. You just need to get into the right networks, know where to look, partner with the right people.” He said: “We are a hospitable people. We love the community, and we want to serve the greater good.”
Francois Henning, co-founder of Boabos Tea and Uplift Kombucha, presents Africa's innovation model not as a limitation, but as a feature. “In Africa, we have to redesign a product to fit our markets, where there is very little cash. We have to find new ways to make it affordable,” he told me in an interview. “That really changes the dynamics of attitudes toward our products.” The push towards cost-effective innovation, extracting maximum value from a single ingredient in many forms, is exactly what the global wellness market is demanding right now.
What will it really take to change the demand for African products?
Marie-Louise Oosthuizen, Co-Founder two in one bushRooibos cordial from Cederberg, the only place on Earth where rooibos grows, with geographical protection equivalent to Champagne. Naturally caffeine-free and rich in antioxidants, her Rooibos cordial is endorsed by the South African Diabetic Council. “Just use it in its most natural form,” he said in an interview. “It's being produced by amazing people. Just enjoy it.”
Mannabrew's Peter Coetzee creates a caffeine-free coffee alternative from mesquite, an invasive species that consumes Northern Cape farmland, turning an ecological problem into a blood-sugar-stabilizing superfood product. Thabi Hlela of African Alabaster Botanical Skincare uses marula and shea butter in a formulation that has cleared up pimples and reversed the signs of early aging in clients who tried pharmaceutical alternatives. “In Africa, that's where you find most of the authentic ingredients,” he said in an interview. “People have farms here and they grow those oils.”
The ingredients are available. Entrepreneurs exist. In African domestic markets and globally, consumer demand has been recorded and is accelerating. What's missing is the American retail buyer who takes a meeting rather than assuming there's nothing there.
The perception that Africa is a continent of needs rather than a continent of supply has cost American companies a decade of sourcing profits. The Good Life Show founders aren't waiting for that perception to grow. They are building without it.
The brands that come first will look much smarter in five years. Brands that don't do the same will spend the same five years explaining why they're paying a premium for ingredients that their competitors are sourcing directly from the farmers who grew them.