The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 came with great uncertainties that prompted everyone to be more cautious about their health. Consumers were compelled to switch to healthier diets to combat this unfamiliar disease. As a result, Sweet ‘n’ Dried Enterprise Ltd, one of the women-led enterprises in partnership with 2SCALE, saw their sales hit the roof as the demand for their nutritious dried African indigenous vegetable products increased.
The enterprise took this opportunity to introduce a new product, Cham Booster porridge flour, a nutritious porridge flour comprising ten products- finger millet, yam, cassava, mango, banana, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, stinging nettle, amaranth, and Moringa leaves powder.
Cham Booster porridge flour was well received by both retail and wholesale consumers, creating even greater demand for the product. According to the Director of Sweet ‘n’ Dried, Mercy Mwende, they get orders from consumers countrywide and beyond the borders, growing their consumer base through referrals.
In response to the increased demand for their products, Sweet ‘n’ Dried sought to increase its production capacity by purchasing new equipment- a mixer and a bigger milling machine. The enterprise obtained the capital through intense ploughing back of profits, applying for bank loans and 2SCALE’s crowdfunding campaign. During the crowdfunding campaign, they were able to raise Ksh. 1,081,227 ($ 8877), receiving Ksh. 819,071($ 6725) from donors and a matching fund of Ksh. 262,156 ($ 2152) from 2SCALE. In total, they acquired Ksh. 3 million ($ 24,742) to buy the machines, which were delivered this year. Mercy Mwende, explains:
When the demand for our product increased, it became harder to handle big and urgent orders. Our production capacity was low because the milling machine we had was small and we would mix the flour manually. It used to take us a whole day to process 200 kilograms. With the new equipment, we will be able to process the same 200 kg within 30 minutes!