Living in Addis Ababa, it is rather hard not to notice the growing number of street french fries vendors which are becoming as ubiquitous as Adey Ababa in September. While walking around the city, if one happens to pass by Churchill road, near the Russian Cultural Center, one will encounter three or four street french fries vendors. One of them is Tesfaye Mengesha.
Back in 2008, when he was just a freshman in highschool, Tesfaye joined the business in the same location. He lives with his mother, two sisters and three brothers. Tesfaye had to begin work at that age due to the passing of his father when he was still very young.
Tesfaye first had a photocopying business. He made 10,000 Br from it, which he used to start the french fries business. Shifting to fries was a wise decision, as he now makes 2,000 Br a day, selling fries and samosas, which are less popular than the fries. “The business is helping me to support myself and my family,” says Tesfaye.
He proudly state that he is now a third year journalism extension student at the Addis Abeba University, paying his own tuition. Moreover he has four employees to chop, fry and serve french fries to customers, and two additional employees to help with the samosa making. Their salaries range from 600 Br to 1,000 Br a month.
French fries are one of the ‘street-vended foods’, which are defined as “foods and beverages prepared and sold by vendors in streets and other public places for immediate consumption, or consumption at a later time without further processing or preparation,” World Health Organisation (WHO), 1996. Urbanisation and population growth are major causes for the increase in the number of street-vended foods, according to the WHO. The business is a source of food security for the low income urban population, and provides a livelihood for a large number of workers, giving them a chance to establish a business in a small capital, the publication goes on to say.
Murida Temam, 27, is one such benefactor of a street-vended food business, who would otherwise be unable to establish a business for want of capital. She started the business with only 1,700 Br, of this 1,500 Br was used to buy the deep fat fryer, and the rest was used for plates, forks and miscellaneous items, according to Murida. The influx of cheap Chinese deep fat fryers has made it easier to start up the business, stated Nejat Hassan, salesperson at Shalom International Trading Plc.
There are two prominent deep fat fryers in the market, the Korean’s and the Chinese, according to Nejat. The deep fat fryers imported from China can be bought for 1,500 to 1,800 Br, if it is a single tank and 5,500 Br to 6,000 Br for the dual tank deep fat fryer. The Korean made fryer is better quality and costs 1,000 Br to 1,500 Br more. The deep fat fryer is easy to operate, there is one handle to turn it on and off, and to increase or decrease the heat, stated Murida.
Tesfaye uses eight deep fat fryers to serve his customers, and 20 litres of food oil, and around two quintals of potatoes per day. His business opens from 6:30 in the morning until 10 in the evening, serving mostly students of Cathedral School.
People who take leisure walking in the evening and workers that pass by from work to home are also major french fries consumers, said Murida,. She mostly serves them from 4:30pm to 8:00 pm.
The cheap price of the food is one factor that attracts people, stated Tesfaye. There are also customers like Bezawit Balcha and Yizedin Kedir, a three year old toddler that came yelling for “two birr chips” that crave the taste of the chips, whom Fortune met while interviewing Murida. Street french fries can be bought from two Birr in some places.
It takes on average around 11 minutes to make potato chips, according to Murida. Most of the vendors buy the potatoes from Atikilt Tera and the edible oil from consumers associations’ stores. The preferred potato for fries is the Shashemene potato. At this time a five litre jerry can of edible oil is sold for 115 Br and a kilo of potato costs around four Birr. But the tight oil supply is making it difficult to work uninterrupted, said Baye Meniye, married father of one. He used to work as a security guard before starting this business, which he conducts from a small corner in front of Semen Hotel, renting electric power from a nearby house for 350 Br a month. Electric power interruptions and high rent are other down sides to the business, stated Baye.
Last year FMHACA published an article about the growing number of street-vended foods in the city, and concerns of public health risks that comes with it. One concern was that the business had little awareness of safe food handling, said Tewodros Germa, Food, Medicine & Health Care Administration & Control Authority (FMHACA), food registration and licensing directorate, director.
Street-vended foods should be prepared in a location that is clean and as far as possible from waste drainages, according to the article, and water and food oil sanitation must also be given due attention. Furthermore, the vegetables used in the process must be stored at an appropriate temperature, in clean and fresh state, the article goes to explain. The handling and serving of end products, as well as hygiene of the vendors must be kept at a high standard in order to prevent an outbreak of widespread food borne diseases, the article states.
Most of the vendors told Fortune they recycle the oil which has been used to fry once and use it for up to three days. Murida boils the potato with salt and lemon before she fries the potato, to keep the goods sanitary. But, this does not mean all vendors have good habits, said Murida.
“If a community is to have the full benefit of street-vended foods, with minimal risk of food borne diseases, governments intervention is required to ensure that food safety standards are the best possible in the context of the prevailing local situation,” according to the WHO.
Addis Abeba Food, Medicine & Health Care Administration & Control Authority (AAFMHACA) is the body responsible for the quality, safety and healthy control of food and beverage in the Addis Abeba jurisdiction. AAFMHACA gives a working license to food and beverage companies after inspection. It also takes the initiative to train or, in some cases close businesses that fail to meet the standards it sets. It has an enforcement body that extends to Woreda levels. However, since street vended foods business is an emerging new business, and because of the lack of human resources, it is difficult for the authority to train them all or even to incorporate them into the inspection system, said Getachew Worti, AAFMHACA, director.
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