MIRPURKHAS: A small but fast-growing woman-led food company in southern Pakistan is using a simple, low-cost production method to turn tomatoes into powder, a product its founder says could cut costs for major food companies by as much as 50 percent while helping stabilize prices for consumers.
The business operates without electricity-driven drying machines, relying instead on manual labor and natural sunlight to dry tomatoes during periods of oversupply, when prices collapse and farmers are forced to discard produce.
The company, Red Royal Foods (RRF), is based in Jhuddo village in Sindh’s Mirpurkhas district and produces organic powder from ripe tomatoes that are sliced by hand, sun-dried over several days and treated with sea salt, without the use of artificial preservatives, additives or machines.
Founded and led by 24-year-old Zainab Munawar, RRF has grown from a small local operation into a supplier serving markets in Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad. Munawar now aims to sell her product to large local and international food brands operating in Pakistan’s major cities.
“Our target is to do business with National and Shan [Foods],” Munawar, nicknamed Nainsukh, told Arab News while standing inside her factory, which she recently acquired from a wedding lawn owner.
