Driven by a passion to revive traditional heritage, Amahle Rilityana is blending culinary expertise with innovative farming to scale her malting and brewing empire, Mahle Agric Enterprise.
Born and raised in Engcobo, Eastern Cape, Rilityana attended local schools like any other child. However, high school changed everything, awakening her entrepreneurial dream.
“It started when I was in high school doing research for iNkoduso yesiXhosa malt. I always told myself I wanted to be an entrepreneur and not work for someone else for long,” she recalls.
That spark pulled her toward a future blending hospitality and heritage, even as city lights beckoned.
From hospitality to heritage
After high school, Rilityana’s path took her to the bustling kitchens of the Capsicum Culinary Studio in Johannesburg. It was here that she sharpened her skills as a chef and hospitality professional, eventually landing a role at the Indaba Hotel in Pretoria.
While she mastered the art of service and business management, life called her back to Engcobo when her grandmother, Nopune Rilityana, fell ill. Resigning from a promising career to provide care was a difficult choice, but it became the catalyst for her true calling.
While looking after her grandmother, she sometimes watched her work with traditional recipes, specifically the famous inkwitshi (umqombothi), which reignited the flame first lit in high school.
Inspired by her grandmother’s teachings and motivated by the big farmers she had encountered in Johannesburg, she saw a critical gap between families’ struggles to access quality meat and traditional products in her community, and decided to start farming to fill it.
Brewing success
In June 2022, Rilityana officially swapped her chef’s whites for farming boots.
She started small in her grandparents’ backyard with 100 broiler chickens and two bags of maize to produce iNkoduso yesiXhosa malt for traditional beer. A year later, she expanded her beer production by adding iNtselo kaNtu.
Today, she runs all three side by side – broilers, iNkoduso yesiXhosa malt, and iNtselo kaNtu – on her grandparents’ six hectares of land. Mahle Agric Enterprise has evolved from a humble backyard startup into a recognised brand producing both traditional beers.
This growth has already garnered attention, with Rilityana’s story featured on platforms like She Leads Africa and StartUp Magazine South Africa.
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However, for Rilityana, the true measure of success is local impact; she has already employed seven people and aims to create over 50 jobs once her facilities are fully established.
To sustain this momentum and secure her own supply chain, she plans to plant maize on 15 hectares of her grandparents’ land and additional borrowed land, a move that comes at a critical turning point.
While local markets are eager to stock her heritage products, she is currently racing to scale production to meet the soaring demand. “I’m working hard to scale up production and secure funding to meet their demand. My goal is to make my product widely available and continue growing the business,” she says.
Securing the future of African malt
While the vision for Mahle Agric Enterprise is vast, the daily reality of farming in the Eastern Cape brings its own set of hurdles. Rilityana still contends with the persistent grip of water scarcity and the urgent need for better infrastructure to move her products.
For a long time, the greatest barrier was securing financial backing, yet these obstacles never dimmed her resolve. Instead, they fueled her determination to knock on every door until she found the support her heritage-driven business deserved.
That persistence recently bore fruit in the form of a strategic partnership with the Small Enterprise Development Finance Agency (Sedfa). More than just a financier, Sedfa has become a cornerstone of her expansion, providing essential marketing materials and currently guiding her through securing R750 000 in dedicated funding for her malting and brewing operations.
Once secured, every cent of this capital will be a seed for future growth: R300 000 will modernise her malting operations, while R200 000 is earmarked to scale the brewery. The remaining funds will flow directly into the lifeblood of the farm by installing irrigation systems, securing transportation, and amplifying her brand through targeted marketing.
With these wins fueling her path forward, her message to those following in her footsteps remains clear: “Stay true to your vision, innovate with passion, and never give up, even when faced with obstacles; the rewards are worth it.”
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