BioFach 2022

04 Aug 2022

Written by Ms Deborah Vorhies

After a pandemic-induced hiatus of two years, the world’s largest fair for organic and natural products, Biofach/Vivaness 2022, was back to its old self at Nuremberg from last week – 25 – 28 July 2022, providing a great opportunity for the organic and natural food and wellness/cosmetics community to network and exchange knowledge both onsite personally, and virtually.

Alongside the main theme “Organic.Climate.Resilience”, the 2022 round of the congress explored issues relating to current market developments and trends as well as political and legislative frameworks. The role of voluntary standards, such as FairWild for wild-harvested plant ingredients, was discussed and received a renewed and enhanced interest, and of great interest was the emerging role of new and smaller challenger brands. This is of particular interest to African wildlife products, in particular for example, the growing interest in new and emerging products such as Mongongo Oil, Marula Oil and a wide array of medicinal ingredients. New applications and products based on ingredients are emerging, too, with a growing interest for example in Baobab powders, baobab-based shots, etc. There is also a growing interest in wild-harvested products of species that until recently have been mainly farmed, such as Wild-harvested Rooibos and Honeybush teas. In other cases, such as Frankincense, Myrrh and shea, the fast-growing market demands points to further opportunities for certified wild harvested products. 

At the Trade Fair itself, more than 24,000 people from 137 countries passed through over the four days of the event, and were able to engage with the 2,276 exhibitors!

However, most remarkable was the array of African products, many of which showcased the enormous growth in potential for African wild plant ingredients. Everything from wild coffee, frankincense, myrrh, through to Mongongo Oil and Marula Oil, was on display to remind visitors and potential buyers of the vast potential offered by the sustainable harvesting and use of African plants, as medicinal or wellness products! The ProFound-sponsored Africa Pavilion provided an opportunity for smaller companies to exhibit and complemented the large number of African wild-harvest products on display.

Deborah Vorhies, AWEI Fellow and Interim COO