Eloge Niyomwungere

In Burundi chili is grown in the highlands of Burundi by smallholder farmers. However, in Burundi being a chili farmer is actually failing before you even start! Smallholder farmers take more than 8 hours going to sell their chili produces in the capital city, which according to statistical data 60% of them end up being spoiled and wasted due to lack of direct market or local companies to add value to it to increase its shelf-life. And even what they sell, it is being sold at the cheapest price fearing to lose it all. Two years ago, I realized that Burundi used to spend over $18,000,000 in imports of chili oil (data from OBR) from Rwanda which was no longer coming due to covid-19 barriers as well as complicated political relationships between Burundi and Rwanda since 2017. Therefore, looking at the increasing market locally comprising of hotels, supermarkets and restaurants which experience shortage of chili oil but also the global chili market estimated at respectively $4.2 billion for dried chili, $31.95 billion for powder and $2,17 billion for chili oil of annual revenue, with an expected annual growth ranging between 5.5%¬-7% in the next five years, we decided to lead the way and initiated Best Food Solution a chili processing company into chili oil, powder and dried chilies with the vision to be the market leader in agriculture value addition and export for chili products in Burundi and beyond creating a sustainable and secure market for chili produces. We decided to bridge the gap and introduced a revolutionary value chain model whereby we partner with Burundian smallholder farmers, provide them with sourced genuine quality chili seeds and other farm inputs therefore we buy their chili products at contracted price. Our flagship products are Besta chili oil, Besta chili powder, which are processed, packaged into well-standard packages and sold both locally through B2B and B2C as well as exported in Kenya and Congo D.R.C