Organic Tourism Sector

The organic tourism sector¹¹ in Zanzibar consists of: hotels, restaurants, shops, tour companies, NGOs/CBOs and women’s groups/cooperatives. All the interviewees were identified because they directly (in one case, Chumbe Island Coral Park (CHICOP), indirectly) were selling/using/producing/promoting organic products towards tourists. Certainly, the actors in this group can also cater for non tourists such as expatriates and locals, but it is tourists who account for the vast majority of their income.

The organic tourism industry were asked why they sell/use/produce/promote organic products. Princesses d’Unguja, a tourist shop in Stone Town, sells edible and cosmetic

11Called so because they sell/use/produce/promote organic products.

83 organic products. Its founder and manager, Patricia Lissauge, a French expatriate, is an active environmentalist. Therefore, for her, it is obvious to use and sell organic products because they are effective, and have no residues of synthetic agrochemicals which she believes are harmful to people’s health. Also, she thinks it is natural in Zanzibar to sell organic products, and she considers it to be lucky that organic produce is available since farmers cannot afford synthetic agrochemicals. Another expatriate, Antje Förstle from the Netherlands, who is the founder of Dada, a women’s group that produce and sell edible and cosmetic organic products, also stated that she deals with organic because it is her personal conviction. She believes that organic makes sense, especially when she wants to support “small people”. The Dada product line builds on indigenous knowledge, but the women’s group are taught cooking, hygienic and business skills so that they can also open their own business. In addition to a commitment to the local women of Matemwe village, she wanted to engage in a secure market (“people must always be fed”), selling something which could be consumed by tourists on the beach. Labelling the products organic is both for the sake of information and marketing: “of course it sells” Förstle said. Tusife Moyo, another women’s group that produce and sell cosmetic organic products said that they manufacture organic products because organic is good for people’s health since it is natural and without chemicals. Tusife Moyo received training and materials from the Small and Medium Enterprises Competitiveness Facility (SCF) and it was a teacher in marine sciences from Stone Town who taught them about organic. Tusife Moyo produce soaps and oil made from seaweed, coconuts, herbs and spices. They buy their products from the Zanzibar State Trading Cooperation (ZSTC), and are therefore not sure if all their products are a hundred percent organic. However, soon they will start to buy directly from a group in Pemba that they know are truly organic.

The last producer and seller interviewed, Zanzibar Organic Spices, sell their spices in Darajani, which is the fruit, vegetable, spice, fish and meat market situated in the heart of Stone Town.

Darajani is often visited by tourists who purchase cheap spices to bring home. It thereby, together with the popular spice tours on plantations, provides the most direct encounter most tourists have with fresh Zanzibari agricultural products. Zanzibar Organic Spices is one of several companies which sell spices that are labelled organic in Darajani, but their spices appear in many of the stalls. Hassan Harouna, the co-founder of Zanzibar Organic Spices,

84 went to a short course at KATI, and teaches his suppliers about using mbolea and organic pesticides such as Marubaini, the lip stick tree, ylang ylang, and the iodine tree. Harouna decided to call his company Zanzibar Organic Spices because “when I say organic it gives more purity compared to just saying Zanzibar Spices”. Also, Harouna thought an organic label would be attractive to tourists¹².

Pictures 2-3: Dada organic food placard and Tusife Moyo organic spice products road sign in Kidoti, Unguja

Photos by: Astrid Johanne Mikidadi (2010)

Eco & Culture Tours is a supporter of organic farming for many reasons. The organic farm they sustain in Jambiani village is a part of their village tour for tourists but is made as a showcase plantation for farmers in the area¹³. Local farmers learn organic farming techniques from the teacher who together with Eco & Culture Tours established the farm and the villagers are also allowed to harvest from the plot. Due to a lack of precipitation that Haji Hafidh Haman, the founder and managing director of Eco & Culture Tours attribute to climate change, and a history of shifting cultivation leading to trees being cut down in the area, Eco & Culture Tours promote organic agroforestry, which Haman also believes is the cheapest form of agriculture.

12See picture of Hassan Harouna by his stall in Darajani selling organic spices on the front page.

13See picture of the farm on page 52.

85 All five hotels and restaurants that were interviewed shared an interest in organic products, as a part of their green or social stance, but they have had various successes in following it through. It was advertised on all of the hotels (except CHICOP) own, or on associated travel agents internet pages that they serve organic food. This was unknown to Nungwi Village Beach Resort (Doubletree by Hilton), and in fact, none of the hotels served certified organic food or could guarantee that their produce was organic. A genuine intension was there with Karamba Resort and Kasha Boutique Hotel, but they had found it difficult to put their vision into practise. Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel however, maintained that they serve organic food from their local contracted farmers.

Karamba Resort is managed by Spanish expatriates Gemma Crespi and her husband. Since he is yogi, they adhere to a natural way of life. Therefore, utilising organic produce is not a marketing scheme but the philosophy of Karamba Resort. They find it convenient to promote organic farming, because then they receive visitors who match with this philosophy, and they do not get the ‘wrong’ clients. Crespi explained that everything served in the restaurant is handmade and fresh, they do not precook and freeze down: “if you order chips we start to peel the potatoes”. Karamba Resort wanted to develop organic farming in the adjacent Kizimkazi village, to provide the local villagers with a business in supplying organic produce to the hotel. However, the project failed as the sheha (the chief) did not provide land and the villagers show little interest in the venture. Also their own organic garden got destroyed during the monsoon. Similarly, the Zanzibari owners of Kasha Boutique Hotel set out with an interest in supporting local farmers and to grow some organic crops themselves, but according to the Swiss manager Peter Burri, the hotel faced major problems when opening which overshadowed this plan.

CHICOP is one of the few hotels and restaurants in Zanzibar serving exclusively the Zanzibari cuisine, allocated from nearby vegetable and fruit farmers connected to the hotel, and the market in Stone Town, thereby making it to a great extent short-travelled. CHICOP receive great reviews from their clientele over the Zanzibari cuisine, demonstrating that the tourist industry does not necessarily have to serve European of American food. CHICOP has won several awards for its marine park eco-tourism, and they perceive organic to be one of the aspects in eco-tourism. Even so, according to Godfrey Mloka, the lodge manager at CHICOP,

86 CHICOP did not really think about presenting their food as organic. However, it is not a lack of interest, much like the other hotels interviewed, as Mloka said: “if there was enough organic food here from Zanzibar it would be really wonderful for our project”.

The general manager at Nungwi Village Beach Resort (Doubletree by Hilton), Kenyan Imtyaz Mirza, consider organic to have an additional value, and to be better for the environment. He said that as a hotel and hotel chain they would fully support organic farming but that they need to check the produce to see whether it is truly organic. Furthermore, he would not feel comfortable in writing organic on the menus unless the food was certified. Also, Mirza would want organic to be an option in the menus, so customers could choose between the same dish cooked with organic and with non-organic produce. Unaware of that several travel agents internet pages stated that the hotel’s “food are freshly prepared and combined mainly from organic foods, especially fruits and vegetables which are derived freshly from our own plantations hence ensuring a healthy diet” (Zanzibar Magic 2009, own emphasis), Mirza could not verify that this was the case nor did he know which plantations they referred to.

The only hotel interviewed then, which persisted that they truly rely on organic produce was Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel. According to German general manager Angelika Hoose, this hotel is focusing on being eco-friendly, and believes serving organic food is a part of that. In addition to Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel, there were four others out of the ten interviewees: Princesses d’Unguja, Dada, Zanzibar Organic Spices and Eco & Culture Tours, who could to a considerable extent personally verify that their supply/produce was in fact organic.

To sum up, some organic tourism operators are motivated to deal with organic products by their personal conviction. Some of these operators stress, like most of the organic agricultural sector, the health benefits of organic farming. Several operators consider organic products to be a part of the whole eco-tourism package or their programme to support locals, but for many their ‘good intensions’ have been halted or they for several reasons only partly follow it through. Still, they nonetheless advertise that they serve local organic food. Some operators were also motivated by the value organic can have in marketing, and one operator seems to have been a ‘victim’ of an associate greenwashing their product. Almost all the

87 organic tourism sector interviewees however came across as committed to supporting both the livelihoods of local people in Zanzibar and organic production.