Indigenous lerotse enhances food market
Lewanika Timothy | Tuesday May 23, 2023 06:00
As a creative food specialist, she uses indigenous lerotse to make a wide range of products like the Lerotse Energy Bar, Lerotse Ice Cream and Lerotse Loaf. The products have a savoury local taste that many Batswana have been craving.
“As an agro-processor I had to look at the back yard of my own talent and garden to create products that resonate with who we are as Batswana,” she told BusinessMonitor.
Her journey as a lerotse maestro began during the COVID-19 pandemic period. While placed under movement restrictions, her mind could not help but traverse the realms of her creativity, drawing inspiration to play around with the bountiful marotse that were in her backyard, she recalled. “Like many Batswana, the lockdowns meant that I couldn’t go to retail outlets to buy what I craved or desired. I then decided to use lerotse to make dried fruit and that’s how it began,” said Tapologo.
As a family-based enterprise trading as Triple A farm, the project’s selling points are to directly sell to retailers and individuals. Tapologo also adds that they are a company “fashioned for growth diversifying to using products like chillies to make chilli salt infused with black pepper”. Speaking on their competitive advantage, she says Triple A has a first mover’s advantage in the market as they are the only ones using lerotse to make diverse products. The Triple A products are made using less sugar than competitor energy bars and are organic.
This, she says, will help their product to gain traction in the local retail space. “We have worked hard to ensure that our products are organic and they have been tested by the National Food Technology Research Centre, earning us a spot to supply corporations like Mascom and BURS with our wide range of products,” she said.
Like any other SMME, Triple A has encountered challenges that seek to impede its operations and growth. Tapologo notes lack of funding as the main concern that affects production capacity. She, however, said the driving force and anchor of their operation is to change perception on locally sourced products and to prove that indigenous products can be used to make a plethora of products for the benefit of the local economy.