Time for Wat export
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Over the last decade, his specialty and business was Injera, Ethiopia’s staple bread. Yet, while he is still at it, and, in fact, taking the Injera business to the next level, Hailu  Tessema, general manager of Mama Fresh Injera Plc, has finalized preparations to export what would seldom comes to one’s mind: frozen chicken curry and Ethiopian traditional sauces.
“We will in two months time start exporting frozen chicken curry and sauces which can be used to make various types of Ethiopian traditional stews Hailu says. “The United States Food and Drug Authority (FDA) has given us the green light to export our products to the United States after testing our traditional sauces and chicken curry. We will in two months time start exporting to the United States.
According to the general manager, his company will initially limit the export to some traditional sauces while it will eventually diversify the export to include frozen Ethiopian traditional fasting foods.
The company has specialized itself how to freeze the foods and how to pack them with latest technologies imported from the United States and Europe, according to Hailu.
We know we will easily win the market in the United States and Europe where there are a lot of Ethiopians the manager says. “Our worry is how we will be meeting the presumably rising demand for our products once it entered the market overseas.
Aside from the export, the company is now busy with local orders on the occasion of weddings and other social gatherings where it provides both the injera and various types of traditional stews.
The organization, which made it from a micro level business to a tens of millions of birr industrial-level export venture, has in the meantime transferred the injera business to the next level.
“I have been in Europe for two weeks to look for an ideal solution to transfer the injera business to the next level, Hailu says“Now I have managed to get European-made injera baking machines that bakes one piece of injera in one minute. This will in a few months nearly doubles the volume of injera we export.
In a bid to provide quality injera export, the company has concluded an agreement with teff, Ethiopian traditional staple, producing farmers’ union, which will supply it with over 14,000 quintals of teff a year.With over 200 employees, and being the leading injera exporter in Ethiopia, Mana Fresh Injera currently exports over 10,000 pieces of injera and 250 kg of kocho.
The company plans to increase its injera export from 15,000 to 20,000 pieces a week after six months.
With Easter holiday there, the company has been busy this week to meet the export order for the 14,000 pieces of injera, and 1,000 kg Kocho.
Aside from the export of injera and Kocho, Mama exports different grocer products and traditional spices to market overseas.
Source: Ethiopian Reporter
