By Montsho Matlala
Molatela Edward Kgarose is the entrepreneur behind Pota Yoga, a drinking yoghurt made from sweet potatoes. The idea for this innovative product came to him one day when, hungry and impatiently waiting for his mother to finish preparing a sweet potato dish, he thought of yoghurt in the fridge. At the time, he was struggling to find employment. Inspired to blend milk and sweet potato, he started to experiment in that kitchen in the village of Ga-Molepo in Limpopo.
He launched his yoghurt business, which he named Kgarose Kgaros, in 2016. Drawing on his marketing qualification and tech-savvy approach, Molatela runs the company with a team of four employees, and now has factories in Seshego and Ladanna in Polokwane. They blend sweet potato with milk for their flagship product, and use certified hygienic ingredients to create a range of flavours, including apricot, strawberry and banana. For vegan consumers, they offer a non-dairy version, and they have launched dairy fruit juices in pineapple and orange flavours.
Since taking his first entrepreneurial steps, Molatela has earned a number of accolades. In 2017, he won R50 000 on the SABC1 show Making Moves, where he was named the standout contestant among 10 entrepreneurs. In 2019, he was honoured as the Shoprite Entrepreneur of the Month and won a provincial Small-Scale Agro Processing Award.
“The prizes were a godsend,” Molatela says. He used the money to buy equipment and provide seed funding for his business.
He also got the opportunity to showcase Pota Yoga at international trade missions in China, Tanzania and Egypt, organised by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.
Government support
More recently, Nakedi Kekana, MEC for the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and her team visited Kgarose Kgaros as part of the department’s strategy to diversify and support agro-processing ventures in the province. She pledged support from the provincial government.
The exact financial value of the assistance has not yet been disclosed, but Molatela is optimistic. He believes it will help him take significant steps forward in his business journey, like tapping into export markets. His plans include the installation of industrial machinery, and buying refrigerated delivery trucks, forklifts and other essential equipment. With this boost, he hopes to process more than 720 tonnes of sweet potatoes and scale up production. The operations will be housed in a 1 000 m2 factory in Seshego Industrial Park.
“Our main objectives are to create a reliable market for sweet potato farmers, and to generate employment opportunities in our local community,” Molatela says.
