Buttoned up.

Hugo Boss, Pierre Cardin and Valentino Rossi, among other designers, are happy to buy buttons of Ecuadoran origin. The reason is that the best tagua--a kind of palm tree grown in the northern regions of South America and better known as vegetable ivory, or Phytelephas seemannii--is grown there. * Juan Carlos Corral, manager of Botonera JC, an Ecuadoran button maker, says national exports in 2005 reached US$30 million, up from $18 million in 2003. During 2006 he expects the number to hit $40 million. Ecuador exports 90% of the worldwide demand for tagua, while Brazil and, to a lesser degree Panama and Colombia, supply the rest. A total of 25 countries import the plant product, the biggest buyers being Italy, Germany, Hong Kong and Korea. The United States buys the most semi-finished tagua. * Ecuador's export and investment promotions agency, Corpei, reports that tagua is one of the country's top agricultural exports. It has been sold since 1859, when the first shipment went to Germany, where its use for making buttons and handicrafts was first discovered. * It wasn't until 1999, however, that exports took off for Ecuador, following a successful presentation of the product at an industrial fair in Hannover. Following the industrial revolution, at the beginning of the 20th century, natural materials for buttons like tagua were severely cut back in favor of synthetics. A half-century later, the plant material came back into use on environmental concerns, and to protect elephants and rhinos from being poached for their tusks. Now some 30,000 families in Ecuador depend on a growing tagua industry.