Dayaxa Frankincense Export

Our Ethics

Sustainable Forest Management

We work with our harvesting community partners to provide training on sustainable harvesting and land management techniques, monitor forest health, and encourage regeneration of the trees. There is a deep body of traditional ecological knowledge surrounding frankincense trees and how to harvest them, and we honor this indigenous knowledge as the basis for sustainable land management in the harvesting areas.

Sustainable Community Development

In addition to fair payment and respect for our workers’ and harvesters’ rights, we know that long-term sustainable sourcing means supporting the development ambitions of the communities we are sourcing from. With both local and international partners, we look to facilitate and deliver investments in clean water, alternative income sources, health care, education, and conservation. Within this, we particularly look to support projects that empower women and support womens’ rights.

Current Projects (2023) include:
1) Supporting the establishment of a women-led small-scale distillation cooperative.
2) Starting a community-based frankincense tree nursery to develop opportunities for community forestry and community-based plantations.

About Us

Our Story

My name is Abdirizak Salah Mohamed, my story is similar to that of many hundreds of people displaced by civil war. I was born in Somaliland; my family were forced to flee the country during the troubles taking their children with them. Sadly, some didn’t make it.

My family’s journey eventually took us to Norway where we made our home. At 16, I came to England on a football scholarship at Charlton FC, but unfortunately injury cut short my career. When that came to an end, I studied Engineering at University in London, qualifying with a Bachelor of Engineering degree.

In 2018, my father told me my uncle Adan Mohamed Yusuf who owns one of the farms around Dayaxa in Somaliland had reached out to him about the challenges the farmers are facing and in particular, finding a direct route to market for their harvest of Frankincense. My family has a long history in this trade stretching over a thousand years but as demand has become higher, they have found themselves marginalised in the trading process. My father turned to me, as the eldest of his sons, for help.

I founded the Dayaxa Frankincense Export Co and put together a team of like-minded people. Our mission is to make a positive difference on the ground by creating a regenerative model for positive social, ecological, and economic change in the region.

Working alongside family members and local people we are focusing on supporting community-created and driven development. We will work closely with the farmers to achieve a fair price ensuring day-to-day living standards improve.