Caren Asamba co-founded Samwa Natural Foods, which sells gluten-free and low-sugar jams, among other products.
In an interview with KTN, she stated that they did not want to invest in the value-addition business.
Asamba stated that her spouse was a passion fruit farmer who used to supply juice firms. However, at some time, his clients declared they had enough, leaving him with a large amount of produce.
She explained that when produce is in season, prices tend to fall due to oversupply.
“We had negotiated a fixed price and I think somebody supplied them with a lower price because there was plenty in the market,” she added.
Following the unsatisfactory experience, the pair researched and decided to add value to the fruits. Their initial product was a low-sugar jam produced from passion fruit.
“At the time, he was still in employment so we would make it and supply to his colleagues, relatives and some friends,” she told me. Later, they created their second product, passion jam without seeds
“We decided to make our second product which was passion jam but without seeds because some people didn’t want to crunch the seeds while eating bread,” she said.
After a while, Asamba stated that they recognized the jams were not viable and that not many people were eating them.
As a result, they sought to broaden their portfolio by focusing on products that were not yet accessible in the market.
“We decided to do Mango ketchup because when mangoes are in season they go to waste but because most people only know the tomato ketchup, we decided to take it by its horns and take a risk,” she stated.
Interestingly, mango ketchup became their second best-selling product after cassava flour.
Samwa Natural Foods produces a variety of gluten-free items, including gluten-free breads, cookies and flour.
They also produce chutneys, low-sugar marmalades, kachumbaris, dried fruits and vegetables, xantham gum and activated coconut charcoal.
