The Marula Juice Tradition

The juicer

The Eudafano factory is a women’s development cooperative composed of 22 associations who collect marula fruits and buy Kalahari melon seeds to extract the insides. The marula fruits can be juiced to make fruit juice and the seeds cut open to extract oil from the inner nut. Marula oil is used for food as a garnish to be put on chicken or rice and cosmetically in lipsticks, shampoo and toiletries. About 10% of oils are sold locally and 90% internationally, particularly to Europe. The factory uses machines to press oil and extract juices while the traditional method uses hands and basic tools.

workers making juice

At my home stay, juice is made by piercing the marula fruit with a cattle horn, squeezing the juices and letting the liquid run through a sieve. The drink is sweet and can be taken without added sugar. It increases strength when left for up to 4 days before drinking. About 5,000 people are involved in at least one of the processes in the organization, but only 15 are employed at the factory. Kernels are also bought from the villagers, but sometimes can be rejected due to quality. Overseers look for color, smell and texture to determine quality. The by-product from the oil making process can be sold for $2.50 per kg and is used as feed for pigs and chicken. Apparently it helps make chickens fatter and more reproductive. Also, marula oil is beneficial for human consumption and has unsaturated fat and plenty of antioxidants. Factors that affect fruiting are weather patterns such as flooding, as fruit rots in water.

marula fruit

Freshly made oil is kept in a warm room to finish the fermenting process but is later put in a cool room at 10C. The Eudafano factory is important in empowering women through development as most of the people involved are women and all board members are women. Furthermore, it is critical in carrying out the tradition as nearly all elements of the process have traditional components. Bottles of marula food oil sell for N$75 and 1 litre of cosmetic oil is N$145.