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If you are thinking about taking hoodia diet pills to help you with your weight loss, you probably know that CITES certificates differentiate pure hoodia gordonii from inferior hoodia products. Yet, I wonder how many people truly understand what the CITES certificate really is and why it’s so important. As a consumer I want you to know what the certificate is and what it means within the hoodia market.

As you probably already know, the hoodia gordonii plant is in high demand. But, did you know that it is a protected species and it’s in limited supply? Until recent years the cactus like plant only grew in the wild in South Africa. But, due to the increased demand for the plants weight loss effects, many people have taken to farming the plant. In order to protect the plant and the San people who have an interest in their native plant, the South African government has put regulations on the hoodia gordonii plant. This means there are licenses, regulations and controls for the growing, harvesting and exportation of the plant.

CITES certificates are one of the basic controls put in place to protect the endangered hoodia plant. There are other documents that are required as well, but for the purposes of this article I’ll only address the CITES certificate. CITES refers to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and is an international agreement between governments. Their goal is to ensure that international trade does not threaten the survival of endangered species.

What this means is for someone to come in and export hoodia gordonii out of South Africa, they must first get a permit from CITES. Export permits from CITES must accompany all shipments of hoodia gordonii out of South Africa. It’s important to understand that these export permits are only good for six months. The permit holder must export the plant out within six months, or they must reapply and start the process over and obtain a new CITES permit.

This is important to understand because there is some confusion in the hoodia industry about the dates shown on CITES permits. People are led to believe that CITES permits must be “current” in order to be valid, otherwise they don’t mean anything. They mistakenly believe that if the CITES certificate is older than six months the company must be lying or must be trying to pull a fast one on the consumer. In some instances an “old” CITES certificate may be just that, but it is not necessarily the rule.

It is not uncommon to see outdated CITES permits. If someone ships in a large quantity of hoodia gordonii, they may still have some of the plant on hand even though their CITES permit has expired. The CITES permit stays with the product until it is all gone. The permit only proves the product that was shipped was authentic hoodia gordonii. It doesn’t have anything to do with how long it may sit at a supplier once it has been exported.

Something that is important for you to know is a CITES certificate may have a different company’s name on it than the company you are purchasing the hoodia products from. This means you may go to the XYZ Company to purchase hoodia supplements and upon viewing their CITES certificate you see the supplier’s name is ABC Company. The names on the CITES permits may not always match up.

Supplement companies get their hoodia from supply companies. Suppliers are the companies that actually go in, obtain the CITES permits and export the hoodia gordonii out of South Africa. The country is selective on giving out CITES permits and they limit the number of exports. It only makes sense that supplement companies would use a supplier to obtain their hoodia gordonii. That is why you may see a name other that the company you are purchasing your products from listed on the CITES permit.

It’s important that you understand that just because a website display a CITES certificate isn’t a guarantee that the company is packaging pure hoodia gordonii into their products. As you probably know, there are no regulations on supplements, so companies can make claims about their products, even if they may not be true.

All the CITES permit is meant to convey is the supplier had permission to export a certain amount of hoodia gordonii out of South Africa by a certain date. Once it arrives at the companies that are packaging hoodia products, they can do whatever they want with it. They can claim they are selling a pill that is 500 mg of pure hoodia gordonii, but it may only contain 150mg or 250mg.

I hope you now understand the importance of CITES certificates. Understanding what they are, and what they aren’t, should help you when you go to purchase pure hoodia gordonii.

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