Spices in Tanzania and Zanzibar

Assisting Zanzibaris and Tanzanians in the strategic use of a legendary resource

What images does "Zanzibar" evoke for a foreign retail consumer? Exotic vacations, tropical beaches and fragrant spices may be a few. Zanzibar attracts thousands of foreign tourists every year, has a long and fascinating history of spice production, and the "Zanzibar Spices" is widely recognized internationally. As a result, spice farmers and exporters from both Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania possess a unique opportunity to increase their income through an IP Value Capture strategy that builds on the international reputation of Zanzibar.

The unique climactic niches of Zanzibar and the Tanzanian mainland allow Tanzania to grow more than ten spice varieties, including cardamom, chilies, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, ginger, nutmeg, paprika, pepper, turmeric and vanilla. In the EU and the U.S., the majority of these spices retail in the range of $90 to $300 per kilo, sold attractively packaged in glass jars holding half a cup of product. Currently, only about 2 percent of this value is retained by Tanzania's spice sector, including farmers and exporters.

A well-planned IP Value Capture intervention has the potential to return significant income to those farmers, producers, and artisans who have rightfully earned it through centuries of experience and trade. Light Years is engaged with government ministries, producer groups, and the private sector in both Tanzania and Zanzibar to conduct business planning in supoprt of an IP Value Capture intervention.

 

Shea butter in Uganda

A bold strategy for women producers of superior shea butter to use corporate tools

The neighboring regions of Northern Uganda and South Sudan exhibit tenacious hope amid great challenges. These fragile states have much in common – underdeveloped infrastructure, decades of neglect by their central governments, a legacy of conflict, and people who are culturally similar and live in much the same way, with an economy centered around basic agricultural output and the work of skilled women producers. It is clear that greater dignity, security, and opportunity for these women will not come from marginal participation in the regional or international economy - they need secure and growing income under their own empowerment.

Fortunately, there exists a special opportunity to help the skilled women producers of these regions to capture substantial export incomes – by reviving their export production of pure, high-quality Nilotica shea butter and using an exclusively producer-owned IP Value Capture intervention in developed country markets.

Applying IP Value Capture to Nilotica shea butter

Nilotica shea butter, made from the Vitellaria nilotica shea tree found almost exclusively in Northern Uganda and South Sudan, is smooth, gently fragrant, and replete with therapeutic substances, making it an ideal skin cream and moisturizer (among other uses). The pure, creamy shea butter results from the skill of knowledgeable women collectors combined with low technology processing, better genetic stock, and good climatic conditions. This distinctive product belongs to the women producers of Northern Uganda and South Sudan who have cultivated their knowledge and skills over millennia.

Light Years is conducting workshops in the region and assisting stakeholder groups in the application of intellectual property strategies to this unique and valuable product.

 

Ethiopian Fine Coffee

Trademarking & Licensing Initiative

How has the Light Years model worked?

Four million fine coffee farmers and small traders and carters are now collectively using business approaches common to modern corporations, due to assistance in value capture strategies from Light Years IP, and with the participation of the Ethiopian Government. These strategies have transformed the farmers’ negotiating position and increased their income substantially.

The strategies recognized that while Ethiopia was receiving export income of about $100 million in 2006/7 from the export of the three highly respected fine coffees, this coffee was generating around $2,000 million in retail markets worldwide. Ethiopia registered trade mark ownership of their fine coffee brands and set up a network of licensed distributors, breaking free of the commodity market. Through this, Light Years helped Ethiopian coffee farmers and producers to achieve a stronger negotiating position.

To date, the strengthened negotiating position made possible through IP Value Capture has facilitated the capture of an extra $200 million for Ethiopians. Income has increased by 100% for around four million Ethiopian fine coffee farmers and small traders. Also, since export prices are now based on retail values for distinctive fine coffees instead of the commodity coffee market, much greater stability in prices will be achieved in the medium term, when the current world recession ends. The licensed distributors also gained, as the value they surrendered was in return for a place in the retail future of three highly regarded fine coffees, whose availability outlook has dramatically improved.

Returning power to low-income producers

Exporting from the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopian farmers experienced balanced negotiating positions for about four or five centuries, receiving a price for their fine coffees based on that negotiating position. Indeed, had a buyer offered as low as 5% of the retail value of fine coffee under the trading conditions that historically prevailed in Ethiopia, he would have been disdained. Up until 2007, however, while Ethiopian fine coffees would retail for up to $20.00/lb. by the bag in retail stores in US, Europe and Japan, Ethiopian export prices have been only $1.00 or around 5% of retail values. Under current trading conditions, with farmers dependent upon commodity markets dominated by a few large developed country buyers, we have come to normalize returns of 5% for low-income producers of distinctive products, a condition that commercial producers in the industrial world would not tolerate.