12 Tips to Starting Food Spicing Business

Starting Food Spicing Business: When engaging into the spice business, you should consider some things in order for your spice business to be successful.

Read also, 11 Tips to Start foodstuff business 

So, if you love to cook and are intrigued by the different cuisines in the world and the spices they use, the spice business is right for you.

Can you tell me a name of a typical Nigeria food that is prepared without spices? Most probably, you can’t. In fact, we can’t imagine Nigerian cuisine without spices. It helps to bring nice color and aroma plus add a great taste of food.

Turmeric, Chilly, Cumin, Coriander etc are the commonly consumed spices in Nigeria and these are grown in every part of the country.

Starting Food Spicing Business

There are also other specialty species that are grown in certain areas that has large usages by the households.

The demand of these spices in domestic and international market is growing at leaps and bounds, thus creating a lucrative opening of spice business, including processing and packaging.

Starting Food Spicing Business

Are you interested in home based spicing business? You can start this type of spice business at your home investing a moderate amount.

You may choose one or two spices as raw materials and initiate a small manufacturing unit in simple way.

Once your business grows and starts making profits.

You can move to an updated spice manufacturing and packaging company in a commercial space.

12 Tips to Start Food Spicing Business

1. Know about the business:

See also; Top Food Processor Business Guide

Spices have a great importance in enhancing the taste and flavor of foods. In Nigeria, it is considered as an indispensable part of any food recipe.

Nigerians produces around 36.68 tons of spices including more than 50 different types of spices and it is the largest production of spices in the world.

Not only that, Nigeria is the leading consumer and exporter of spices including dry red chili, turmeric, cumin, pepper and others. Beside their daily and random application in households, spices are used by the processed food industry.

There is a great use of spices in making pickles, sauce, snacks etc.

In recent times, our food habit has been changing significantly along with the lifestyle.

Earlier’ whole spices were consumed but in today’s busy schedule, people are more likely to use powdered and packaged spices as it is more convenient to use.

Thus, there is a potential market of powdered spices as well as ready-to mix spices.

Starting Food Spicing Business

2. Get the business registered:

To start with a small or medium scale spice production unit, you need to register your business with Registrars of Companies (ROC).

As you are about to start a micro enterprise (investment in equipment not more than 10 lakh), You can fit with One Person Company registration.

 3. Get A license:

1. You need to obtain a trade license issued by the local municipal authority.
2. If you register your company as micro, small or medium enterprise, you will obtain a production certificate. Owing this certificate helps you to get easy loans at a lesser rate and enjoy various government subsidies.
3. You need to get Food Business Operators (FBO) license.
4. You should comply with FPO regulations.

4. Look for location

Related, How to Start a Food Packaging Business 

You should locate a covered shed area of around 150 sq.mtrs with power and water supply.

Starting Food Spicing Business

5. Get the necessary Equipment

Electricity requirement for the plant would be 7.5 HP.

There is a requirement of simple machinery for spice grinding and packaging. These are as follows,

1. Disintegrator
2. Spice Grinder
3. Sieves
4. Heat Sealing Machine
5. Compressor
6. Roster
7. Weighing Scale

6. Get the water available:

Depending on the plant size, washing of raw spices would require around 750 liters of water for every working day.

Starting Food Spicing Business

7. Get the necessary raw materials:

In order to start production, you need to buy spices in bulk.

Here is list of main raw materials required.

1. Turmeric
2. Chilly
3. Cumin
4. Coriander
5. Pepper
6. Mustard
7. Methi Leaves
8. Fennel Seeds
9. Poppy seeds
10. Mixed powder
11. Permitted food color and preservative
12. Packaging Materials including PET, MET-PET, PP, PPFP
13. Corrugated Cartons

 8.  Know the Processing Procedure:

Related post, Business Opportunity in Food Processing Industry 

Spicing business involves several consecutive steps such as cleaning, drying, grinding/pulverizing, sieving, filling and sealing the packaged spices.

At first, underground spices are thoroughly cleaned before processing. It should be washed in potable water, preferable in 2 or 3 buckets of 15 liter capacity.

Starting Food Spicing Business

The next step is drying of spices for ensuring the good quality of spices.

Solar drying is the best option. Then whole spices are sorted by size, shape, color and flavor.

For small-scale unit, manual grinder is used to pulverize the whole spices in getting powdered form of spices.

Since turmeric is solid by nature, it is passed through a dis integrator to get the uniform sized pieces and then pulverized.

Now the powdered spices are sieved to ensure the uniform mesh size after grinding and thereafter weighed and packed in polythene bags.

A care is needed during packaging depending on the type of species and humidity of storage.

Starting Food Spicing Business

9. Know about the Business

If you love cooking and are always intrigued by the different spices of the different countries, you can start a spice business and turn your favorite hobby into earning money.

You just need the right licenses, excellent marketing strategies, wholesale resources, bank account for your business and some creativity and planning.

You don’t need a lot of money for your capital cost because starting a spice business is relatively low in startup cost.

10. Know the Marketing Strategies

Must read, Easy business in Nigeria to Start

You could check with your local, state, county, and zoning laws about the appropriate licenses necessary when starting a spice business.

Be aware that there are some homeowners’ groups as well as some cities that are banning any spice business run in homes.

You may be required to have a specific place where you will assemble and stock the spices you will sell for sanitary inspection and health clearances.

If this is your case then you must find a place that has passed these inspections and used it for the assembling of the spices. Then, decide carefully on how you are going to market the spices.

You can use proprietary blends for the seasonings. For example,oregano, basil, garlic powder, marjoram, onion powder, fennel seeds, as well as parsley.

You can also concentrate on the spices use for certain dishes like soups or chili

Starting Food Spicing Business

11. Know the Resources and Pricing of the business:

Find where you can buy wholesale spices in much cheaper prices as well as the package materials you need.

You can look in the local telephone directory or look online for the companies offering wholesale of spices.

Keep in mind that the spices that are bought in bulk are very much cheaper than those in the grocery stores.

As for the packaging materials, these things should be of food-grade quality and must be designated carefully when you purchase them.

The prices of your packages must be competitive with the gourmet products.

You should put together the right herbs and spices’ combinations for the convenience of your customers.

12. Know Places to sell the goods:

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Know where you are going to market your spices.

The grocery stores are usually not an option for this business because most of them will require terms that many small businesses can’t afford to accommodate.

The boutique gourmet stores can be a possible place for selling spices.

You can also choose to sell on food shows, crafty shows, and farmers’ market or just sell exclusively online.

As for the business account, this is where you will deposit your business sales money so it is important to track and also keep any receipts so that it will be easy for you to complete tax forms.

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