Hoodia Weight Loss Products 

The real thing: a CITES certificate

In South Africa, this authorization is provided by a CITES certificate. Hoodia gordonii was added to the CITES schedule during a 2004 meeting in Bangkok. The official CITES listing for hoodia now reads:

Botswana , Namibia , and South Africa submitted a proposal to the 14th Conference of the Parties of CITES to list all species of Hoodia on Appendix II. This proposal was accepted in January 2005 and it is now prohibited to trade in any parts and derivatives of any Hoodia species without a permit. A permit can only be obtained from the relevant permitting authorities of each country and can only be issued for trade in cultivated plants or wild plants where the trade can be shown not to have a detrimental effect on wild populations (a CITES non-detriment finding). The listing of Hoodia makes provision for exemption from CITES permits where traders participate in controlled harvesting and production systems in collaboration with the CITES Management Authorities of Botswana/Namibia/South Africa, but no such agreements are yet in place. Importing countries must ensure that a valid CITES export permit has been issued by the country of origin for any trade.

Because all genuine hoodia gordonii exported from South Africa must have a CITES certificate, the display of such a certificate by hoodia resellers is one of the ways consumers can confirm the authenticity of the product.

See a CITES certificate on the DesertBurn website. Desert Burn also displays the sellers license and growers license, providing the most documentation of all hoodia resellers in the United States.

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