Five large baobab trees — a species native to Africa which can live for up to 2,000 years — remain at a warehouse in Durban, South Africa while authorities investigate possible wrongdoing, the warehouse owner told OC Media. The trees were destined to be exported to Georgia, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) told local outlet Daily Maverick. The department has opened an investigation as the trees are purported to have been felled and prepared for shipment without a permit.
It is not known who ordered the export. Baobab trees have, however, previously been controversially exported to, and later died in, Georgia. In 2024, all eight baobab trees imported in 2023 from Kenya to the Shekvetili Dendrological Park — founded by billionaire, ruling Georgian Dream party founder, former Prime Minister, and tree enthusiast Bidzina Ivanishvili — died the following year. The park blamed the opposition political party United National Movement (UNM) for the trees’ fate.
‘Unfortunately, the stress endured by these unique plants had consequences, and 6–7 months after being planted in Georgia’s soil, all eight baobabs withered’, they wrote at the time.
‘The trees were harvested in the Lephalale Local Municipality, Waterberg District, Limpopo province, and were scheduled for export to Georgia, Europe,’ the DFFE said, regarding the trees in Durban.
The warehouse’s owner Africa Global Logistics (AGL) told OC Media that ‘when concerns about the regulatory documentation’ came to their attention, they ‘stopped the proposed shipment’.
AGL said that they were ‘not the owner, exporter, or permit holder for the trees, and was not involved in uplifting them or moving them from Limpopo. Responsibility for obtaining and maintaining the required licences, permits, and regulatory approvals rested with the owner and exporter’.
The DFFE has not identified those facing criminal prosecution or the owner or exporter yet. The warehouse owner told OC Media that ‘AGL has cooperated with the relevant authorities and will continue to do so. No criminal charges have been brought against AGL in connection with this matter. As the matter remains subject to ongoing processes, AGL will not comment on the conduct or legal position of any other party’.
Dr Sarah Venter, founder of the Baobab Foundation, estimated that the trees photographed by the Daily Maverick were ‘probably between 200 and 300 years old, very likely’ — the age at which a baobab reaches maturity.
‘An adult baobab tree often reaches adulthood only after 200 or 300 years. So they’re very slow-growing trees’ — which is one reason why the trees’ removal from their natural habitats can be so damaging.
‘They live for 2,000 years, you know, if you take a baobab tree out of its environment — let’s say the tree’s maybe 200 or 300 years old, you’re actually removing a resource from that environment that could be there for another 1,000 years’.
She also highlighted the loss on the local residents and economy without these trees; ‘they use the fruit for food, they use the seed […] for their own medicine and fibre, for food, they also use the bark to weave mats and baskets’.
‘People are able to harvest that fruit for hundreds of years without damaging that tree and that fruit is processed and it is made into this baobab powder, if you google baobab powder, you see it’s a superfood, it’s sold now across the world as a superfood, it’s used as an ingredient in beverages, in juices, in yoghurts, in chocolates, you know — health drinks, energy drinks, that sort of thing’.
'What’s really valuable about this is because the tree only grows in Africa, the benefits of this go back to local people, so it’s a very important income to many local people being able to harvest and sell the fruit’.
Venter raised concerns about the treatment of baobabs in Georgia despite the succulent trees being technically ‘really easy to uproot and replant somewhere else’.
OC MediaShota Kincha
‘Georgia has not had a good track record keeping these trees alive in Georgia itself,’ she said, referencing the eight trees that died in 2024.
The warehouse owner told OC Media that for the meantime the trees will stay at the Durban warehouse.
‘AGL is not authorised to move or release them while the relevant regulatory and criminal processes are unresolved, and it cannot take unilateral action that might conflict with the authorities’ directions or affect those processes. AGL is concerned about the preservation of the trees and will comply with any lawful direction from the competent authorities on their care, movement, or removal’.
Additional reporting by Nino Shurghaia.