From Raw To Reward

The couple bringing cashew butter to store shelves and healthy eating plans in Tanzania

-  Inaara Gangji

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Mohamedhussein and Sabiha Rashid were left with a large shipment of cashews they were expecting to export from Tanzania to the United Arab Emirates, as part of their maiden entrepreneurial venture together as husband and wife. Airports shut down cargo operations, and for weeks, the cashews had to be stored in their apartment in Dar es Salaam.

Sabiha had to find something to do with them. Having watched numerous episodes of Shark Tank and attuned to entrepreneurial thinking, it struck her that she could convert them to cashew butter. Sabiha had gone vegan for a year while at university in England and had experienced first-hand the benefit of switching her food choices.

“I used to eat cashew butter, but I never thought of why nobody was making these things in Tanzania, although the country is one of the largest producers or growers of cashews globally,” she says.

So, out of her home kitchen, she started making the butter, as well as conceptualizing the product and packaging.