LIMPOPO – This, as indigenous foods such as mopani worms and marula fruit thrive during this time, and so do the selling opportunities.
In the areas where there are Mopani trees, there’s an outbreak of Mopani worms every December, which many people in the poor communities harvest to make ends meet.
While some people keep the worms for household consumption, others sell the worms on the market to boost their income in anticipation of back-to-school demands in January.
“It’s easy money if you want to sell because they are expensive, but I do it only for household consumption,” explained Edith Mabunda from Makhuva village, one of the villagers who spent their December festive harvesting the worms.
Each February people from all over the province collect marula fruit to make marula beer or to sell them to a company in Phalaborwa that processes marula fruit into products such as lotions and beer.
Those who choose to process the fruit by themselves usually make marula beer which they then sell in the streets to passing motorists.
Anah Ngoveni from Xikukwani village in Giyani is one of those who process and sell marula beer in the streets.
She told CV that business is good and the fruit in abundance.
“I don’t have to go far in search of marulas since they are everywhere,” she said, clutching a two-litre plastic bottle full of marula beer which she sells for R25.
“The demand is currently high because it is the beginning of the season so there aren’t many people who are selling the beer,” she said. According to her, this is also the right time to get quality beer since the fruit is still available in abundance. “As the fruit runs out, people become desperate and cheat their customers by mixing marula beer with additives and claim that it is pure marula beer while it is not,” she said.
