Support Indigenous Farmers To boost Local Production, Reduce High Cost Of Food Items, Chef Wendy Urges Govt

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Wendy’s Kitchen, Ms Festus Chiwendu, popularly known as Chef Wendy has called on both the state and federal governments to always support and encourage the indigenous farmers in order to reduce the high cost of food items in the country.

Chef Wendy also solicited encouragement for food items that are locally produced in order to beat down the demands of foreign items that are so costly in the market.

Speaking with journalists in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital over the weekend, Chef Wendy highlighted epileptic power supply and unstable prices of food items as major challenges facing food businesses in the country.

Chef Wendy who started her food business in 2018 after a Master Degree in Banking and Finance noted that cooking has been her passion right from childhood.

She maintained that her passion for cooking has kept her moving in the business despite all challenges experienced so far, she however called on any individuals that have passion for culinary profession to seek proper training before venturing into the food business.

She said, “Wendy’s Kitchen started in 2018, I registered it in 2018 but I started in 2019, there has been lots of ups and downs since I started the business, but to the glory of God we are still moving forward.”

“I cook food for people, people place their order, I do catering service for indoor and outdoor events and other stuffs like that, I do personal chef too, food in bowls, this period food items are really expensive due to the high cost of food items in the market and you can’t really give customers the exact price of food needed for an event because what you buy today will surely be different to what you are going to meet at the market tomorrow, the price changes every hour, and this is a big challenge to us as a stakeholders in the business.”

“Things changes prices everyday, when you go to the market to sort for the items you need to cook the food, you will then realized that the price has changed from the normal price you had at hand, so the price changes almost every hour, so it’s so difficult for us to predict or assume the price for customers, and secondly the epileptic power supply has crippled many businesses and this is also affecting our business too, if you want to make more profit it’s advisable to buy food items in bulk, buying food items in bulk in order to maximize profit but the challenges we face due to poor electricity supply will not allow us to buy food items in bulk because most of these items are perishable items that needs to be refrigerated all the time, these are the basic challenges we have when it comes to food business.”

“Government can help us by providing a very conducive environment for our business to thrive, at least if the government can give us at least 18 to 20 hours electricity supply per day, I mean a steady light supply we will be okay, we will be buying food items in bulk and this will maximize our profit.”

“Government also need to to start encouraging our local indigenous farmers so they can start mass production of food items, this will also reduce the price of food items, especially the locally made food items, this will reduce our over dependent on the foreign items, the items will be sufficiently available at a cheaper rate in our markets, if we have lots of people producing locally, there will be sufficient food items to buy in the market and this will surely reduce the price of food commodities, if there is way the government can assist the farmers it will really bring down the price of food items in the market.” Wendy said.

While speaking on her project, the “Ibadan Chops ‘n’ Chills”, Wendy stressed the maiden edition of the event was surprisingly successful, expressing optimism that this year’s edition of the event will also be impactful.