Mwanaka Fresh Farm Foods - UK-LONDON BLACK FARMERS LIST

Verified B.O.B. Brand = Yes
Verified B.O.B. Owner =Yes
Verified B.O.B. Founder =Yes
Verified By: Linkedin
 
WEB: mwanakafreshfarmfoods.com
Contact: 📧 
IG: 
UK-LONDON:
Mwanaka Fresh Farm Foods (London)
Mwanaka Fresh Farm Foods is the brainchild of David Wilfred Mwanaka, an award winning writer and journalist.
Born in Zimbabwe, David grew up eating white maize. When he came to Britain in the early 1990s, David was surprised to know that white maize was not grown or even known about. He missed eating white maize so much that he thought of growing the crop himself.
David then started carrying out trials, growing white maize. After 6 years, David was confident he could grow white maize commercially in Britain.
From such simple beginnings, helped by his wife Brenda and their three children Jonathan, Ruth and Miriam, the family now successfully grows white maize on a farm just outside London.
As from 2007 David came up with another new product in the UK. That is White Sweetcorn, which is so popular as an alternative to yellow sweetcorn. Children love it and would advise you to put it on your list of 5 a day health eating. For that reason it quickly found its way onto shelves of supermarkets like Sainsbury’s and into UK top stores like Harrods and Selfridges.
Read some of our reviews:
Former journalist David Mwanaka has been enjoying success as the only person in the UK to produce white maize, a crop that is normally grown in Africa, South America and parts of Asia.
And despite critics telling him that his plans to grow maize in the UK would never work because the climate wasn’t right for it, Mwanaka has wowed UK food lovers on the lookout for new organic produce. As well as having major supermarket chains such as Sainsbury’s, Harrods and Selfridges among his client list, his company, Mwanaka Fresh Farm Foods, makes deliveries to shops and restaurants all over the country.
But the business success that he now enjoys is a long way from his early days in this country after arriving here from Zimbabwe in 1991. Frustrated by the lack of a free press in the southern African country, he hoped to continue his work as a journalist. However, it proved much tougher than he thought. And despite gaining further qualifications in journalism and sociology in the UK, he was still unable to find the job that he wanted.
 
SHARED JOURNEY: David with his wife Brenda
“My wife just thought it was one of those pipe dreams that would never come to anything,” he recalls.
His first efforts were unsuccessful. In fact, it took another five years and many late nights before he finally grew a successful crop and eventually convinced Brenda that it was a project worth pursuing.
Initially the maize was just for himself and his friends to enjoy. But he soon realised that there might be a market for his produce and in 2002, he set about trying to find farmland to grow maize.
“I travelled around the countryside looking for some farmland, just knocking on farmers’ doors asking if they had any land to spare. They just looked at me suspiciously and the answer was always no. So I thought I’d try something else and I put an advert in the Loot, the free ads paper.”
The ad didn’t bring any interest either. However, it did attract a call from a journalist at The Observer who decided he wanted to support Mwanaka and wrote an article about his efforts to become the UK’s first maize farmer.
OFFER
The publicity led to a call from a college in Enfield, north London, which owned ten acres of farmland near the A10 and were happy to rent it to him. Although he wanted more, Mwanaka accepted the offer.
“In my first year, I produced a successful crop but couldn’t sell much of it because very few people in the UK knew anything about maize. But the business grew by word of mouth as people from southern African countries such as South Africa, Namibia and and Botswana who were living and working in the UK got to hear about what I was doing.”
Now in 2013, Mwanaka employs up to seven people in his business. He also sells a range of other products such as pumpkin leaves, tsunga [mustard leaves] and sweet potatoes from his farm shop in Enfield, as well as owning more land in Salisbury which is farmed by his business partner.
While Mwanaka plans to expand his farming business, he is working on several other projects which he is passionate about, such as working on a feature film script.
He also wants to pursue his other love - music. He plays in a R&B group with his son and niece and they are busy gearing up to release a new single and video. But just don’t ask him to take lead vocals.
“I can’t sing,” he laughs. “A friend of mine told me ‘never ever sing and I would have to agree with him. I just haven’t got the voice so my niece who is in the group does the singing and I play bass while my son plays drums.”