By Neo Kolane
The success of a vegetable project of two former co-workers ‘Nono Anicia Shale and Ntṧekhe Tlaba at Farm Rite led to a large scale chilli production and eventually saw them making their own sauce called Boriba Chilli Sauce.
Farm Rite is a farmers’ market which produces meat and vegetables. It is based in Ha Pita in the Maseru district.
Boriba is one of the many products of Farm Rite. The inspiration behind the name comes from a place in Leribe called Boribeng where Tlaba comes from.
Shale and Tlaba grabbed the opportunity of large production of chilli by both hands and attempted to make chilli sauce.
Shale told theReporter this week that a lot of people do not buy it in its raw unless it is modified and that was another inspiration behind Boriba Chilli Sauce.
The nutritionist said Boriba Chilli Sauce is made with chillies specifically Habanero and a mix of a chilli sauce that is available in the market.
She explained that the two plant their own chilli or buy it from people who sell it.
The current flavours of Boriba Chilli Sauce is hot and mild.
“We however are aiming for a variety of flavours; we want to do chilli sauce that is infused with herbs and garlic as well as other sauces like barbeque. We take order from different social media platforms whereby a customer places an order and then we deliver it in town.
“We have approached different shops and our biggest order is for one shop at Ha Pita in the Maseru district which I cannot disclose for now,” Shale said.
Shale who learned about the science behind food said the sauce is made from scratch, saying that the chilli is taken from the garden, cleaned and processed depending on how the two want it to be, but they prefer fermenting it and then the rest of the ingredients are added.
Shale who also ventured into home economics and nutrition at school explained that chilli works well with colds “because the body becomes resilient to getting cold; besides that it contributes to the flavour in food.”
She said, as a business, they face challenges because it is not everyone likes or even eats chilli. They have realised that the market for chilli is very small.
“Another challenge is that the bottle we use for packaging are hard to find. We have to order them from South Africa and that slows our production as we have to wait for some time before packaging, “So far, we are overcoming the issue, we make in and out, sell our products in shops,” she said.
The 125ml of Boriba Chilli Sauce costs M25.
The owners can be contacted on +266- 5848 5035 or +266- 5675 2008
