Zimbabwean entrepreneur capitalises on demand for health meals

By Irene Kalulu, hen story company

In 2016, Tracy Vongai Mapfumo took up a occupation with Bio-Innovation Zimbabwe, for the reason that her yard begin-up, a wellness food items company, was not paying out her lease.

The entrepreneur, now 29, experienced an instruction in agriculture, holding a BSc (Honours) in crop science from the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) in South Africa. She had long gone to UKZN soon after acquiring excelled in her A-level scientific tests and been awarded a Presidential scholarship.

Nonetheless, immediately after graduating in 2014, she to begin with struggled to safe employment. So she volunteered at a research organisation learning underutilised plants and that was when she realised that neighborhood plants could be of worth as elements for competitive, African, health and fitness food items. They could also give her a means to keep “home” instead than next so numerous other graduates in seeking for perform exterior the country.

So, from her small backyard in Glendale, 59km from Harare, Mapfumo started functioning. “I commenced experimenting with earning treats utilizing community seeds and vegetation and offering them to my workmates and family. One particular of my workmates reacted to a snack bar I manufactured that had peanuts. She received violently ill, and from there, I vowed to make delicious, wholesome snacks for folks like her,” Mapfumo said.

Immediately after attending a few foodstuff fairs to see what sort of gluten and peanut-totally free snacks have been on the market, Mapfumo recognized gaps in this place that she could capitalise on. This led to the birth of Mapfumo’s wellbeing meals start off-up, Eny’s Treats.

“I was decided to make treats that people with peanut allergy symptoms could appreciate without the need of reacting to. I designed a seed bar without having employing the regular peanut. I used sesame seeds and moringa seeds. No just one reacted to these, like the girl with peanut allergies, which pushed me to check out extra flavours,” Mapfumo stated.

She begun off earning a seed bar with distinctive levels. Some experienced chocolate, sesame seed, baobab, cranberries, pumpkin seed, and at times moringa or blueberry. What she had in head was wholesome, tasty and gluten- and-peanut-absolutely free snack bar catering to people with allergies.

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