Chilli Mash, a UK chili sauce company with operations in Rwanda, has secured a major international contract worth £11 million (approximately Rwf18.5 billion) over five years.

The company will supply 150,000 bottles of its sauces to the Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize, marking a big step forward in its export journey.

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The company was co-founded by Rwandan entrepreneur Stephanie Kayirangwa with her business partner Natt Boarer.

Their goal was to create high-quality sauces using Rwandan ingredients, while building a business that could operate across both Africa and Europe.

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Chilli Mash is a £2 million turnover food producer and distributor that the married couple set up in 2016, inspired by Kayirangwa’s love for and knowledge of chilli mash, a process that sees chillis mixed with salt and left to ferment in barrels for between six weeks to two years.

This mash is then used to create tasty sauces.

Chilli Mash has shipped 150,000 bottles across a range of six sauces so far to Delhaize, and in March visited five stores to see the stock on the shelves. "It was amazing to see them there,” Kayirangwa told The Times, a UK news media.

Boarer said the attraction of exporting is that overseas supermarkets are not so tough in their pricing demands as UK supermarkets appear to be.

"In export they [supermarkets] are not as mercenary with their pricing arrangements,” he said. The terms on offer are better despite the extra costs of shipping and dealing with all the paperwork post-Brexit.

Chili Mash’s journey

Chili Mash’s success didn’t happen overnight.

The company received important support from the UK government, particularly through the Department for Business & Trade (DBT).

A trade adviser, Paul Abley, helped the team understand and complete the complex paperwork required after Brexit.

He also introduced them to Martina Blackman Andersen, a food export specialist at the British Embassy in Belgium.

Martina and her team helped Chilli Mash with translation, logistics, and building connections with buyers—essentially acting as an extension of the company’s team.

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Chili Mash also joined the Manufacturing Africa programme, an initiative run by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

This programme helps UK-linked companies produce goods in Africa.

For Chilli Mash, it meant they could part-process ingredients like chillies in Rwanda, where they are grown.

Instead of air-freighting fresh chillies to the UK (which is expensive and less environmentally friendly), the company now ships fermented chilli mash by sea.

This change has cut costs, reduced their environmental impact, and created 25 jobs in Rwanda and another 15 in Portsmouth.

Exporting food products after Brexit hasn’t been easy.

There are new customs rules and tax requirements that can be difficult to manage.

But despite these challenges, Chilli Mash found that international markets often offer better prices and more opportunities than the UK alone.

The company is now planning to grow its trade with other European countries such as Germany, France, and the Netherlands. It is also exploring new markets in Thailand and Dubai.