Trio Aim High As Jam Business flourishes
Lebogang Baingapi | Monday August 14, 2017 15:30
For the trio of Malebogo Karele (39) Olebogeng Aaron (32) and Reetsang Modisaemang (33), the journey of their thousand miles has started and it has begun to bear fruits. Their unique idea of blending a fruit and a vegetable to produce a sweet jam has made them outstanding to say the least. Reetsang explained that their atchar was prepared with fresh vegetables and is carefully packaged to make it appealing with emphasis on food safety and handling measures. The trio is old school friends and they abandoned their previous jobs to come together with optimism to produce jam and artchar. Karele was previously employed at Cumberland Lobatse, Aaron at Kromberg while Modisaemang worked as refrigeration technician at a local company. They all agreed to source funds from the government’s gender affairs programme and the idea turned out to be successful with a P245,000 start-up capital. They formed Golden Maths (Pty) LTD company and went for training at Nation Food Technology Research Centre (NAFTEC) to learn how to make jam, artchar and packaging in November last year. They then opened the business this year in June. “We mix a fruit and a vegetable like apple and tomato, carrot and orange as opposed to the usual jam of fruits. The good thing is we are aware of the nutritional value of our product because we have been trained,” explained Modisaemang. Karele chipped in to explain that their passion for food and opportunity for funding came handy and blended well with their vision to contribute positively to the economy of the country. She said the business has a potential to create massive jobs for the youth. Aaron also added that the uniqueness of their products has attracted more clientele to their base. She said the positive side of their business was that there will be decrease in imports of food commodities as the business grows. “We intend to grow with this business and add other food processing methods and things like juice making and use other vegetables which are found and ploughed locally. This will also help us penetrate even the outside market,” added Aaron. Though transport remains one of their challenges, they are optimistic that they will soon be the leading producer of the unique jam and artchar. They have approached several leading chain stores and their products will soon hit the shelves. “The market is good and promising. Our artchar can also be ordered in bulk to be used in events such as weddings and other social events. So far the market has been responsive and we are hoping for the best,” Karele said.