Fair Trade Aloe Vera from Mexico
Amidst the natural biodiversity of Central Mexico, our Aloe Vera, the robust moisturizer among herbal active ingredients, thrives. Its ecological cultivation in the San Luis Potosí region ensures fair prices for fair wages for the local smallholders and thus prevents the overexploitation of untouched nature. It is not for nothing that our Aloe Vera bears the “Fair for Life” certificate, which commits us to social responsibility in international trade.
Not only does it provide a certain amount of moisture. Together with our partner GREENTECH, we would like to strengthen the income of small farmers in order to create a worthwhile alternative for local agriculture. Excessive logging, for example, is still a profitable industry that demands sustainable prospects. In this respect, Mexican farmers manage their aloe fields according to ecological principles.
Wild Desert Lily
Pale green grows out of barren ground like out of nowhere. Originally native to the Arab world, the Aloe Vera now defies the long heatwaves in the Central Mexican highlands as well. It is persevering and robust, in particular a real lily plant. Known as the “desert lily”, the aloe vera alone protects its inner life from drying out: Not a single drop is wasted when water only seems to roll off its thorny leaves during the rainy season. Similar to cacti or agaves, their leaves contain a wonderfully soft core of densely stored moisture – ideal for refreshing dry areas of skin.
Moisture in rows
Whoever harvests the solid leaves of the aloe vera gets to their natural liquid depot. The small farmers, however, only use the outer leaves so that the plant can always recover from the harvest. The water bound in a gel inside the leaf is highly concentrated. Time is pressing so that it does not dry out under the scorching heat.
Still on the plantation, the farmers devote themselves to their further processing with sensitivity. They carefully fillet the gel from the leaf by hand and then turn it into powder. Pulverising not only ensures that the moisturising effect is retained and that the natural but irritating ingredient aloin is rendered harmless. The extract obtained makes it possible to use aloe vera without preservatives in our i+m products. At the same time, this process reduces the ecological footprint: usually, tons of water are transported to keep the already harvested raw material fresh.