Buy Tanzania Blue Basil Directly From Exporters & Suppliers - Best of 2024 Market Prices

We provide high-quality Tanzania blue basil to the local and export markets. We source the raw fresh Tanzania blue basil from family growers in Tanzania.

Mostly violet in color, Tanzania blue basil is the African blue basil, a cultivar of two varieties of the herb. It is a common find in the forest lands of three East African nations including Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. In appearance, the plant has elongated and drooped inflorescence with violet-colored blooms when mature. The stalks holding the blooms are purple while the leaves below them are a bright green but also turn purple at seeding time.  It is perhaps the only breed of basil that has showy flowers unlike true basil whose edible leaves overshadow their flowers.

The spikes of flowers make Tanzania blue basil one of the most attractive herbs. Though the leaves make for the main reason it is grown, the herb’s blossoms also make for quirky floral bouquets.

The origin of the African blue basil is East Africa. It comes from a cross between East African basil and the dark-leaved dark opal basil. Its botanical name is Ocimum kilimandscharicum x bacilicum ‘Dark Opal,’ in homage to the dark opal parent. Its discovery was in as recent as 1993 when an American agriculturalist first sighted it in the East African plains during a visit. He noted that the plant, unlike other cousins, does not sprout from seed but rather cuttings.

We source Tanzania blue basil from the areas of Moshi, Arusha and Mwanza. It grows next to other basil varieties including mtule (Ocimum suave). We only obtain the plant from family growers with as little as 0.5 hectares and no more than 1 hectare of land. Notably, they maintain their farms through farmyard manure and use chemical sprays sparingly.

We harvest Tanzania blue basil through a careful selection of the mature, broad leaves just before the flowers rise luxuriously above them. We also wait until the drooping blooms have towered about 18 inches above the leaves and harvest them for display or seed needs. Harvesting the leaves calls for the time when budding has just happened. This way, the foliage will not turn purple as it does when the flower spikes turn up.

We wrap the leaves of Tanzania blue basil and put them in polythene for transportation to the packinghouse. From here we select healthy, purplish-green leaves and tie them into bunches. We also trim the edges to enable the produce to be easy to pack. We keep the hand-sized leaves in a cool, dry place after washing and rinsing them.

We pack the African blue basil leaves from Tanzania in bunches made up of 10 to 12 leaves apiece. We also have larger bundles of between 20 and 24 leaves per package. We tie each in natural fiber before encasing them in clamshells or jute bags. These bundles then feature in corrugated and waxed cartons.

We store Tanzania blue basil in a cool, dry environment at 10 degrees Celsius. We keep the leaves wrapped in their travel bags or even airtight plastic papers. While hydrating the produce, this wrapping prevents black rot from occurring as the leaves are quite susceptible to chilling.

We transport Tanzania blue basil under the same optimal temperatures to the airport in either Dar-es-Salaam (Julius Nyerere International) or Arusha (Kilimanjaro International). Our delivery on special refrigerated trucks will usually reach you in the next 24 to 48 hours after dispatch.

Thus, if you would like an alternative to sweet basil for your meal enrichment, then Tanzania blue basil from us is a definite go. We select the herbs carefully at harvest time to ensure that you get it at its most tender and colorful. On top of that, the produce comes from Global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)-certified sources, itself a quality guarantee. In terms of tonnage, we meet your requirements by being always handy with surplus from our herb growers. We also make our price suit your budget by lowering the rates. Make an order today!