Ayeera Slyvia and her mother, Ms. Mbaruka Irene, the masterminds behind Faith Concentrated Juice, a product made from passion fruits.
Their 750ml juice concentrate can dilute up to 5 liters and is priced at UGX 30,000. Slyvia’s venture was inspired by her personal experience of seeing passion fruit farmers struggle to preserve their crops.
“I saw most people growing passion fruits without knowing how to preserve them,” she says. “The juice is organic; we use lemon and ginger to preserve it.”
According to Slyvia, their product stands out in the market due to its natural taste and attractive branding. This allows people who can’t access fresh passion fruits to enjoy the product in a packaged form.
“We have no outlet in Jinja, so we participated in this agricultural show to expand our market. We believe the people of Jinja will greatly benefit from our passion fruit value addition,” says Ayeera.
The passion fruits are sourced from their farm and from farmers in Kabale District where the main factory is based with a branch in Kisaasi and Gayaza.
The production process involves washing and drying the passion fruits, concentrating the juice, and adding lemon and ginger as preservatives.
“Mainly what we do is that we wash the passion fruits and dry them. We extract juice which is concentrated and we add in lemon and ginger,” she explains. “We add no other preservatives since our juice is purely organic. We also make the concentrate juice which has no sugar for people who don’t take sugar.
At the show, Slyvia learned the importance of offering smaller juice bottles. Her resilience and persistence have sustained her business, and she’s confident that her product will attract more customers. “We’re sure this is a product that can attract more customers.”
Slyvia commends the Young Farmers’ Federation of Uganda for their commitment to supporting youth in agribusiness and empowering women through various initiatives. This support has enabled her to connect with her target audience and create lasting memories by providing a platform to showcase her products at the National Agricultural Show.