It’s not every day that a kitchen experiment turns into a community-empowering initiative. Leeko Makoene numbed her tongue and survived two ulcers to discover an authentic fiery taste named Chilladido.
With the brand’s co-owner Portia Mmabatho Morudi, she is bent on giving back to the communities they grew up in, with a ‘Made With Rural’ concept showcasing their authentic offerings.
While most of their peers have migrated to urban areas, the duo returned to invest in rural South Africa.
“It doesn’t make sense that rural communities who have rich arable land [at their disposal] still experience abject poverty and huge rates of unemployment,” says Makoene.
Chilladiddo is a food manufacturing company that produces chilli sauces, relishes, honey and other food products. The ingredients are sourced from Makapanstad village, processed in Lanseria, Johannesburg, and then sold at food shows, markets and a few Spars outlets in the city.
To make their business viable, the duo sought a partnership with the PEACE Foundation to set up structures to make  the projects sustainable. The foundation provided the necessary skills, resources and know-how in the communities.
The duo’s iLawu Honey project driven by the rural village of Winterveld is a showcase of innovation; the bee-hives are located in citrus farms managed by co-operatives in the area. The hives help with the pollination, and the honey produced is sold at food shows and markets.
This was Morudi’s brainchild, and for this, she was selected an emerging change-maker in South Africa by Spark International and invited by Virgin Unite and the Richard Branson group to speak at an event in London in 2014.
“Year after year, government ploughs money into projects and co-operatives operated in rural areas, only to see them fail and out of business a year later, simply because it is hard for them to crack the retail space, and secure sustainable markets,” offers Makoene.
As an entrepreneur, she found a solution to this issue. They partnered with like-minded small business owners, who are looking to raw materials and other things to keep activity in the rural supply market chain.
Makoene maintains that the youth misunderstand rural development.
“Agriculture is food. The whole chain of taking food from the soil, all the way to the shelf and the plate is what agriculture is about. There is a broad and exciting future in agriculture. African youth can create a legacy for themselves and their communities.”
In June 2015, the pair will host a mentorship walk in rural Makapanstad, where professionals, government officials and business owners will motivate and encourage the youth to pursue their dreams.
Plans are also underway to source funding to convert an inactive school facility in one of the villages into a processing plant for manufacturing Chilladiddo products.
Already awarded grant money from SAB Kickstart and The Hope Factory to help move the business forward, the Chilladiddo duo are set to launch a franchise food outlet and host a big festival to showcase all that Makapanstad has to offer.
“I am more fulfilled and rich doing the work that I do for rural development. I get pure joy on a tractor, than in a Porsche. Life has humbled me, and shown me what it is that matters the most, and from there, I have started receiving material riches,” says Makoene.
The chilli sauces and the fire in their bellies are enough to keep them going.

2014-02-21-15.13.11

From The Soil To The Shelves

Whenever Lynne Odhiambo and her husband, Harold, are out for dinner, one of her rituals includes holding a bottle of Heinz ketchup and caressing it passionately. For a moment she gets lost in thought, imagining what Henry John Heinz, the American founder of the H.J. Heinz food company must have felt knowing that his products were, and still are, a must-have item on many tables around the world. By the time the waiter interrupts her thoughts to take her menu, she knows that with each day that passes, she is a step closer towards becoming the Heinz of Africa and perhaps the world.
Lynne has a big dream, which started in her kitchen two years ago.
“We had been experimenting with different sauces that we [her and her husband] made in our kitchen and which we would often share with friends and family over meals. The sauces were always very well received and we were often asked why we were not selling them. The same friends and family became our first customers!” she explains.
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That is how H&amp;L Ventures (Harold and Lynne Ventures) was born.
The couple runs their business from their home located in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa—around 600 kilometers from the capital city, Nairobi. The husband and wife business is still at a humble start. They produce 100 bottles a week, each weighing 250ml, under the brand name Rojo.
“We started with a few hundred shillings to buy the ingredients and everything else was borrowed from the kitchen!” jokes Harold.
Why chilli? I ask.
“We love chilli on food, it is something we both grew up with, but as fast food has become more and more prevalent, we realized that the traditional condiment offerings that were common place in Mombasa, are no longer available. There was a time when if you went to a number of eateries in Mombasa, your food or snacks would come accompanied by a choice of a green chilli, red chilli, sweet and sour sauce and in most cases coconut chutney,” says Lynne.
The couple often wondered why the condiments were missing and realized it was because of the mix of cultures along Kenya’s coast. Mombasa was a major port in the European spice trade route.
“Our sauce draws on the coastal cuisine which is a mixture of Arab, Asian, European and African influences.”
H&amp;L Ventures involves the production of  the chilli sauces, their marketing and distribution. They have outsourced the cultivation of a variety of chilli peppers to a group of local farmers in Rabai, a historic area that is around 20 kilometers northwest of Mombasa.
Lynne uses a rare kind of chilli pepper, the Scotch Bonnet, which has a very unique bouquet—it is fragrant and very hot.
“Despite being one of the hottest chillies in the world, one only feels the heat after experiencing the taste. We chose Scotch Bonnet because we thought it had character and would add something distinctive and extra to our sauces,” says Lynne.
The couple admits that it is still too early in the game for them to feel like giving up. They are so passionate about Rojo that they have no time to worry.
“We have not felt like that but financial backing has been a major setback,” says Harold.
One of the major challenges has been the sourcing of the chilli peppers and the main reason why they decided to work with farmers in Rabai.
“It (Scotch Bonnet chilli) was only available in Uganda. Packaging was also another problem, we had wanted to package the sauce in glass bottles, and however, local manufacturers only supply bottles for liquor, so we had to settle for plastic bottles,” says Lynne.
Quality control issues are also a challenge as they are still operating from their kitchen at home.
“It has taken two years for us to settle on the right formulations, because we had to work with meagre funds.”
The business has a long way to go, like Heinz which started in 1869, Harold knows one day Rojo will compete with Heinz and may not take a century that it has taken the Heinz brand. Africa has a rapidly growing population and middle class. The rising concern about processed foods, which is leading to an increasing demand for organically grown food, is encouraging for their growing business.
“We envision that once we are operating at optimum capacity, the business will be realizing good margins. Our strategy is to remain an artisanal manufacturer, by getting into a niché in the market,” says Harold.
The food industry in Kenya and most of East Africa is largely dominated by international food brands and this is the segment the Rojo chilli brand is eyeing. In a years’ time, they would like to be the condiment brand of choice at every barbeque, table, in every household and restaurant. For now, the business has three employees including the couple who are part of the H&amp;L Ventures. Lynne and Harold know that their business is growing and is hot—literally!  <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1258" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/dreamstime_l_2958187-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />

Tag: Sauces

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From The Soil To The Shelves

It’s Heinz Time We Become Millionaires