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Flora Fadzai Sibanda, Chronicle Reporter

A HORTICULTURE farmer in Upper Rangemore is adding value to her produce that include melons and mulberry by turning them into jam.

Ms Talita Matutu (58), a single mother of four, grows cabbages, tomatoes, chomolia, ginger, pepper and melons on her five-hectare plot.

She took a keen interest in value addition of farm produce after she ran losses in the past.

In a bid to address challenges that come with products flooding the markets or dealing with perishables, the farmer has established a company, Granny’s Pot, and her products are already on the markets around Bulawayo.

Ms Matutu decided to innovate and produce finished products on her farm to cut on losses that come during times when the market is flooded with produce.

She is now manufacturing jam, tomato sauce, pickled beetroots, peanut butter and dried vegetables as opposed to just selling the raw produce. Ms Matutu also packages the finished products and has established a label for them, Granny’s Pot. She works with her children to produce and value add her products.

A Chronicle news crew visited Ms Matutu yesterday at her plot.

 

She revealed that she was working on getting a barcode for her products so they could penetrate supermarkets.

She said she attended a value addition workshop organised by a local agri-business company which taught her that even when starting small, one can improve the quality of their products.

Ms Matutu said she took a keen interest in value addition of farm produce after she ran losses in the past.

“I remember specifically in 2020 tomatoes flooded the market. I had an acre of land that was filled with tomatoes. So I made a great loss as I had to reduce my prices so people could buy. Some of the tomatoes did not sell and they ended up going bad,” Ms Matutu said.

“SeedCo called us for a capacity building workshop where we were taught about value adding to our agricultural produce.” 

She said she is happy that none of her surplus produce will ever go to waste.

“I make jam using melons and mulberry. I also make peanut butter using the peanuts that I plant in my plot. I also dry vegetables and package them for people who like dried vegetables. I have fine chilli which I grind here at home. I also make pickled beetroot and use vinegar as my preservation,” she said.

Ms Matutu said she dries vegetables under a shade so that they do not lose colour and nutrients. 

She said she makes up to 600 bottles of jam in three hours when she gets orders.

“My daughter sells the products for me. The market is still a bit low but it is growing. I am sure by the end of this year it will have grown. I’m also aiming to put barcodes on my products because when we approached big supermarkets, they liked our products but asked us to first put barcodes on them,” she said.

Ms Matutu said by branding her products Granny’s Pot, she wants to be well known and also inspire other farmers that they can set up established companies. 

Her company’s logo has a pot and burning fire.

She said she uses traditional preservation methods in value adding her crops.

“The pot and the fire represent the source of energy that l use when making my produce. I use fire to make them as I believe no other energy makes the best food other than fire. The brand name Granny’s Pot and granny knows best means no one can cook a better product than granny,” she added.

She said some of her products go for US$2 and she dreams of exporting.

“Most people outside the country love dried vegetables. I hope I will start exporting soon to other countries,” she said. — @flora_sibanda