Caption
18 March 2014, Manzini - Eswatini Kitchen factory.
Workers sterilize the jars before filling them with the sauce.
Eswatini Kitchen is a Fair Trade producer of natural gourmet food that buys all the fresh vegetables and fruits used in the preparation their products from approximately 100 local farmers and growers at fair prices. This includes small scale farms all over the country plus families and women who pick the wild Marula, Guava, Lemons and Chillies.
Eswatini Kitchen was established in 1991 in Swaziland by Manzini Youth Care (MYC), a Salesian NGO supporting marginalized youth in the country. The main objective was to create employment for disadvantaged women, provide a market for small local farmers and rural families who harvested wild fruit. The profit generated was to be destined to fund Manzini Youth Care?s social programmes. The project started with 5 women that worked in a one room kitchen and covered every part of the production process.
Nowadays, Eswatini Kitchen is a fair trade producer of natural gourmet food, certified by WFTO (World Fair Trade Organization) and COFTA (Cooperation for Fair Trade in Africa) that exports its products to 15 international destinations including Europe, USA, Australia and Japan, complying with food safety standards, HACCP requirements and international regulations. Eswatini Kitchen has grown from a small cottage industry to a thriving business that is enhancing the lives of underprivileged communities by providing a fair and sustainable income for over 300 people in Swaziland, and devoting all its proceeds to the Manzini Youth Care initiatives, which support more than 2000 marginalized children and young people in the country.
EU-funded Swaziland Agricultural Development Project (SADP) GCP/SWA/016/EC: Swaziland Agricultural Development Project (SADP).
Objectives: Overall increased equitable economic national growth and development. Specific objective: Improved smallholder production, and marketing systems which lead to sustainable food security and an improved quality of life for rural households.