18 Aug 2024

National Agro Processing (NAPro) products have satisfied all the requirements of Botswana Bureau of Standards to acquire product certification.

NAPro is the home of Harvest Haven products, which include tomato sauce, mixed vegetables pickle (atchar), pickled beetroot, pickled onion and dried vegetables.

NAPro sales and marketing specialist, Mr Keontse Mothibedi told the gathering, at the closing of National Agricultural Research and Development Institute (NARDI) science week in Maun, that BOBS had approved NAPro products since they had passed all quality assurance tests, adding that the organisation would be issued with product certification.

Such achievement, he said, was testament that the company employed good manufacturing practices and used advanced technology and science.

 He gave credit to NARDI for providing high research and innovative solutions.

He said NARDI was instrumental in developing formulations for NAPro products as well as shelf life studies and all tests required  for manufacturing.

Mr Mothibedi also appreciated financial support from the government to expand the plant and increase production so that NAPro could spread wings to expand market base, noting that the products were currently available in selected Sefalana Group stores, Choppies, Spar and Fours stores country wide as well as Daily Needs Supermarket in Selebi-Phikwe among others.

Furthermore, he said they were experienced a high demand for their products and appreciated that they had secured funding from Ministry of Entrepreneurship to expand the plant.

He also acknowledged that NARDI was also mobilising funding to assist them. 

“We are also in the process of extending our product range so that consumers can be able to buy locally made chakalaka among others. Out beetroot will soon be the market leader as it does not last in stores and at the moment we want to improve our tomato sauce because we believe in continuous improvement,” he added.

Mr Mothibedi said NAPro intended to support farmers and utilise technology and innovations from NARDI to improve production.

Meanwhile, the gathering learnt that NAPro was established to increase shelve life of locally produced horticulture products by processing them and put in different packaging models.

The developmental project was also aimed at expanding markets and stimulating growth of the horticulture sector with the mandate of economic diversification and ensuring that the country was food sufficient as well as promotion of value addition to known products and creating variation with a longer shelf life among others. 

Established to mitigate spoilage of excess produce and to provide market for lower quality grade produce, NAPro has developed a product specification data sheet which is a guide to farmers on the plant requirements.

Furthermore, Mr Mothibedi revealed that through NAPro, they wanted to ensure beneficiation across the linkage between the farmers and the organization citing that the more they buy would motivate farmers to increase production and create employment opportunities. Ends