African Walnut “Coula Edulis” Market Study

Following our earlier work on NTFP, PFF commissioned a market test study from Form International and EticWood on one of the promising products described in our last NTFP-report in terms of business potential.

The choice fell on Coula Edulis, because the “African walnut” is a nut with great properties. For this a broad network of traders in nuts and fruits has been approached to evaluate the market potential.

One of the main findings from this work was that most traders tend to shy away from introducing a new food product to the market since it is a lengthy process involving considerable resources (Novel Food registration). Other important prerequisites for a product are the amount that can be reliably supplied each year, perishability, and food safety (biotoxins, microbiology).
Based on these findings, we have supplemented our study “Assessing the business development potential of four NTFPs” with information on market launches that have already taken place for the various products analysed.

The results of the Coula Edulis evaluation can be found  here.