11 May 2025

The first ever Gaborone Food, Beverages and Craft market that was held at Squash Club, Court 5 Saturday got off to a good start buzzing with vibrant markets that offered everything from delicacies to handmade crafts and fresh produce.

The market catered for everyone, with laid-back music vibes and locally-made products with a personal touch. From fresh produce jams, sauces, pastries and cakes, syrup, handmade jewellery, a little of fashion design and beautifully crafted beverages; the event merged the best flavours of Gaborone with urban experience by entrepreneurs and entertainers.

Among the stalls was Maungo Craft, an award-winning preservative-free preserves company promoting an indigenous fruit industry for sustainable growth. Their story is an inspiring one to the entrepreneurs, particularly those aspiring to penetrate the international market. Currently, Maungo Crafts exports to countries such as Germany, US, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe and has also been featured in the US magazine Bloomberg.

“We are trying to chip into South Africa, which is difficult but we trust we will make it,” said Maungo Craft sales administration officer Lebogang Ngubevana. Ngubevana said South Africa wanted Maungo Craft to have a registered company in South Africa as a condition to trade in the country. She further explained that the biggest challenge for them to export to various countries was the issue of logistics, as it was expensive to take their goods to any country.

Ngubevana advised entrepreneurs to be willing to take risks if they were looking into exporting. “People are afraid to take risks, but that is the game of business. And also, people need to explore, visit and meet potential business partners,” she said.

Also, featured at the market was Katie-Anne Pastries which uses cream cheese as the main source of icing. The cakes have a tangy and less sugary flavour. “I enjoyed the carrot cake and I loved the taste of cream in it,” said one market patron Lisa Hall during tasting.

Sauces are often a hit at food events, and Hickson’s Hot Sauce by Karabo Maine was one such. A peach-based Habanero sauce established in 2019, inspired by a show on YouTube, is made with locally sourced ingredients except peaches.

“I started off with berries then went on to peaches and sold at few markets where people were interested. But for personal reasons I stopped, and I came back and started making the peach flavoured one which I am now selling at markets,” Maine said.

“We achieved our goal of bringing the right target crowd for this market and we hope some exhibitors here can engage with people and take their businesses further from here as they are craft and niche people, and hopefully they can get private bookings as well,” said curator of the event Lesedi Magowe.

With so much positivity from the first one, Magowe said with sustainable sponsorship they hoped to host it quarterly. “This was a trial one, and we are looking to land proper sponsorship and partnerships,” Magowe said adding that with the event they were trying to prove that the concept was viable. ENDS