By Kefiloe Kajane
A trip to a winery gave Sefatsa Khabo, the owner of Mashimi Wines, an idea that led him to start his business of wine making, one of the few in the country.
Khabo told theReporter in an interview that when he was still a student at Lerotholi Polytechnic in his final year, he was doing an entrepreneurship module which developed his love for business. He said later that year, a trip to Western Cape to a winery where he did wine tasting changed his life forever.
“That day I fell in love with wine. And I knew that it was something that I wanted to know how to make. I ended up staying longer and learning from the winemakers the process of refining wine. After that, I knew that I was going into the business of wine making.
“What we do at Mashimi Wines is that we make wine from apples and grapes. People have really loved our wines. This is due to the support we have seen from Basotho and the good reception the business has received from them. The demand that we have has exceeded our capacity and we are grateful for that,” he said.
He indicated that when he started, the lack of capital to start was a great torment and also licensing which he later overcame but was also confronted with other challenges as well.
He keenly observed that his business has experienced was that in Lesotho there were no standards regulating the type of business he was indulging in. This means he has to outsource them from South Africa with a high price.
“Another challenge is that our country does not have laws that allow us to export. It is very difficult when we want to export our products. This is frustrating for us because the international market is our biggest prime target
“Despite all these challenges, I would really like to see us grow as a business. That is our biggest goal. I would like to see us become the biggest brand that will create many jobs and grow the wine industry in Lesotho. It has been a very difficult journey and starting something new in this country is a challenge on its own,” Khabo said.
According to Research Market the world’s largest research website where reports on every industry is found, the wine market in Lesotho was equal to M105 million (calculated in retail prices) in 2015.
Until 2025, the wine market in Lesotho is forecast to reach M166 million (in retail prices), thus increasing at a CAGR of 5.14 percent per annum for the period 2020-2025. This is said to be a decrease, compared to the growth of about 6.48 percent per year, registered in 2015-2019.
Mashimi Wines can be found on Facebook under the same name or on the phone number +266 574 722 24.
