From cow hides to comfort food
Food processing startup looking for space in Waterloo Region
It is called “ponmo” — a popular comfort food made by hand in Nigeria from cow hides.
“I come from a tradition of makers, so my family would make and sell food products, including this,” said Aramide Taiwo, who is looking to rent space for the first ponmo production facility in the country.
Her company, Tileyi, plans to ship its first commercial batch of the West African comfort food in October.
Taiwo’s company will marry the old and the new — she is working with the Conestoga College entrepreneurship collective to mechanize her family’s recipe for making tasty snacks from cow hides — remove the hair, clean the hide, tenderize it and pre-cook it, just for starters.
“That includes retrofitting some existing equipment as well as designing it to reduce the risk for our staff, and improve efficiency, so we can produce at scale,” said Taiwo.
After the ponmo is pre-cooked, it is used as the base for other dishes, sides, garnishes and syrups.
Taiwo wants to sell ponmo and associated products across Canada, and after four years of research and development she is looking for a production location to rent, hiring 15-20 people for everything from production to marketing, and constantly looking for other sources of cow hides.
“We have to do some market development and education too,” she said.
Mechanization is the key to going national. Hair is removed by singeing or scalding the hides. Either way, machines will be designed to protect workers, she said.
Nobody in Canada makes ponmo and diaspora communities use unregulated supplies that vary in quality, said Taiwo.
“The traditional product itself is well known, so the snack we are producing is different, it is a very valuable introduction to the Canadian culinary space,” said Taiwo.
“It is a high-protein, high-fat product that has no carbs. It is just the skin deep-fried in its own fat and seasoned with salt and other natural ingredients,” she said. “It’s
like sausage jerky.”
It will also be targeted at the health food market.
After going through the startup incubator LiftOff, the Black entrepreneurship program in downtown Kitchener’s SDG Lab, Taiwo’s budding company secured an $80,000 federal grant.
During her research, Taiwo learned that cow hides are used in cuisines from Hawaii, Japan, Indonesia, China and Malaysia as well.
“When I talk about the diaspora market, I mean people from all these places who now live here,” said Taiwo. “I was surprised, I thought it was an Africa thing.”
The biggest challenge so far was securing a source of cow hides. The ones not sold for leather are typically dumped in landfills. But meat production is highly regulated and federal bureaucrats can be tougher than old leather boots — cow hides were not allowed as a source of food. It took years to get the approvals for a slaughterhouse to provide hides.
She thought it was a no-brainer, using a discarded part of every animal for a new food product while diverting hides from landfills, and was surprised by the bureaucratic hurdles. But she finally prevailed and is ready to set up shop.
It is just the kind of startup that caught the attention of Scott Macleod, the regional manager of Libro Credit Union. It funds programs that support employment, financial resilience, housing, and local food accessibility in the communities where it operates.
The Black entrepreneurship program checked a lot of boxes, and has a growing track record of success, said Macleod.
“If we can support something that is a going concern in the community, that’s where the magic happens,” said Scott. “They already created 60 permanent jobs and 18 temporary jobs, it’s already working.”
Libro is providing $50,000 over two years that will be used as micro-grants for startups.
LiftOff executive director Trevor Charles said the program, the only one of its kind in the country, has finished two years of a three-year grant from Ottawa. During that time it has helped about 100 entrepreneurs.
The agriculture-food processing sector has lots of opportunity for the right entrepreneurs, he said.
“The goal is to increase diversity in agri-food sector,” said Charles, a UW microbiologist who cofounded, bootstrapped and leads three successful startups.
“So, we see a lot of opportunities for LiftOff in that area,” said Charles. “We have a couple of entrepreneurs in that sector, but I think we can do so much more.”
‘‘ The goal is to increase diversity in agri-food sector.
TREVOR CHARLES LIFTOFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR