Asande Dhlamini
THE mopani worm, truly a delicacy and widely consumed in rural areas of South Africa, has been taken to a new level by entrepreneur Wendy Vesela-Ntimbani.
She is the founder and CEO of Matomani, a company that uses mopani worms to provide consumers with sustainable, low-impact, organic healthy protein. Ntimbani who was raised in a small village in Limpopo said she launched her company back in November 2021, because she wanted to bring a sustainable source of protein to the world.
At the inception of the company, Ntimbani looked at how it had been speculated that the world population could be too large to feed itself by the year 2050. By that time, the population would have risen to 10 billion people on the planet and the food demand would be high.
“When you look at the food supply at the current moment, in the future there will not be enough food. We need to think of innovative ideas in terms of what we are going to do when there isn’t enough food, especially protein. Insects bring that solution,” she said.
“It is an indigenous protein and a lot of people do not know the nutritional benefits of masonja,” she said. Mopani worms have high amounts of protein, iron, calcium and phosphorus.
“Mopani worms are amino acids that our bodies need to function at optimal levels,” she said. There are currently four products that Ntimbani has launched. The mopani worms, are perfect as a snack or an added ingredient in stews or pizza. The mopani flour is made from stone-ground mopani worms and is used in pancakes or as a thickening agent in sauces. The mopani biscuits, which are a high protein savoury snack, and lastly the mopani protein bar, which is a high protein booster snack.
What has grabbed a lot of people’s attention is the protein bar, which she created because she wanted to connect to commercial consumers, who think mopani worms are just worms with no actual nutritional value. She created a bar because people would compare it to other bars and see that it is as healthy if not healthier than other protein bars.
Some of the challenges she has faced are being able to find funding.
“There is a whole lot more that we would like to produce but because of funding, there are limitations. The capital only allows to bring in a certain number of units but the demand is high,” she said.
Lack of equipment means they have to outsource manufacturing of their products. Human capital has also been a challenge for the company because anything that is outsourced comes at a high cost. Coming from a rural area, she said, “It is all about community, there is no story about mopani without the community.”
The community is heavily involved in harvesting the mopani worms, so employment opportunities are opening up. The company plans to have a social-based project which will empower the community and youth in the rural space.
She said, “This year we employed 22 people, seven are fixed-term employees and the others are seasonal employees and that does not sit well with me because it would be amazing to employ everyone. We aim to invest a portion of our profits back into developing the communities in rural Limpopo. We believe that by educating and upskilling youth in Limpopo, we can enable them to depend on picking and selling of mopani worms as a major source of income.”
Matomani products are available on their e-commerce shop, airports and Takealot.