84 The informal trade of Cassipourea flanaganii as a cosmetic in South AfricaSurplus material is sold to the third link in the chain, amayeza stores.
These stores are owned by either traditional healers or entrepreneurs of
various ethnic groups who employ traditional healers. The amayeza stores
form part of the formal commercial sector as these stores are run as
businesses and the owners have rent and business expenses to pay (Cocks
1997). The stores are generally situated in the formal central business district
and operate as dispensaries of both herbal and patent products. Amayeza
stores sell C. flanaganii for US$15.60 per kilogram. The mark-up is as high
as 150% compared to the street market price, which is US$6.24 per kilogram.
RMPs have various options to sell their products. The price per kilogram is
up to six times greater, however, when they sell the material from their street
stalls rather than to storeowners or middlemen. RMPs ranked C. flanaganii as
the fifth most common species sold, whereas traditional healers and amayeza
storeowners did not include it amongst the top 10. This is so because C.
flanaganii is a cosmetic generally sold by itself rather than being used as an
ingredient for herbal medicinal mixtures prepared by traditional healers. A
large percentage of the population is aware of C. flanaganii use and consumers
purchase it without consulting a traditional healer. Consequently the majority
of material sold is from street markets.
Because the gatherers are also the first level traders, they are aware of
the use and value of the product and are therefore in a position to adjust the
price of wholesale material depending on the buyer. For example, white
entrepreneurs pay significantly higher prices for the material than black
entrepreneurs. No grading system is currently utilised and there is no significant
alteration to the product as only the bark is sold.
Neither the gatherers nor the street traders belong to any formal trade
organisation. There do appear to be basic conventions, however, that street
traders have formalised amongst themselves. In King William’s Town there are
two groups of street traders. The older of the two groups has monopolised the
opportunity to supply amayeza stores on a weekly basis and wholesalers from
neighbouring towns such as Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth on a monthly basis.TRADE TO LARGER CENTRES
Within the study site, only two male gatherers commute regularly to the large
urban centres of Cape Town, Johannesburg and Kimberley as well as Alice,
Port Elizabeth and Graaf Reinet (Figure 2) to sell C. flanaganii bark. It is likely
that this product also reaches Durban through resale, although gatherers/
traders in this study did not report commuting there. The demand for C.
flanaganii in KwaZulu-Natal is in competition with C. gerrardii and therefore
probably not as lucrative.
These traders considered their activities to be far more profitable than
selling in the herbal market in King William’s Town. Male gatherers are willing
to travel alone to as far as Cape Town whereas the women prefer to operate
closer to home. The former have been harvesting for 12 years in the study
site. C. flanaganii is one of 12 medicinal plant species harvested for external
sale. The male gatherers showed similar social characteristics to herbal
hawkers, i.e., low levels of education and the same age group categories.05cassipourea.p65 84 22/12/2004, 11:04