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Founder Stories: Homiah
by Foodbevy
April 28, 2022
Let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there. How did your company get started and why?
My grandmother was a famous cook and the genesis of this story. She was actually one of the first women in Penang to codify Nyonya (a unique hybrid Southeast Asian culture) recipes. I grew up cooking with these recipes. When I came to the U.S., I found that I really missed the food from home. I was always smuggling in loads of spices in my luggage bag. I would cook some of these foods in my Columbia dorm room and discovered people really liked eating what I made. That’s what started Homiah: my grandmother’s recipes. I decided to take the plunge and begin my own business bringing Southeast Asian Nyonya flavors to Americans.
What is your product and how would you describe it?
Homiah makes premium, heritage-inspired Southeast Asian sauces and spices.
How have you pivoted your business this year?
The past year has been insane with too many challenges to recount! In 2021, we raised $40K through pre orders (Kickstarter) to make and import our first container of high quality Southeast Asian pantry products into the US. Going out and executing has been hard: there was a raging pandemic, supply chains are insane and freight & raw material costs have sky-rocketed. In addition, we were trying to open a supply chain in Burma (our challenges were covered saveur here: https://www.saveur.com/food/tastes-worth-the-trouble/). And for the sauces in spices that I was personally manufacturing in Malaysia with small producers, we had numerous instances of shut downs to production due to Covid. We eventually had to pivot, fulfilling orders from Burma only for preorders. And for the remainder of product, we finally put the product on a ship in October 2021 and it took almost 6 months to arrive at my warehouse!
What is your next challenge to overcome?
So thankful to finally have product at hand and to launch the company (targeting May 4). There will always be challenges, but getting our products into hands of consumers and educating them about Southeast Asian foods and seeing increasing adoption will be key.
What do you predict for the food industry over the rest of the year?
I’m definitely seeing more and more specialty and ethnic foods. Unique flavors and ingredients are becoming mainstream.
Learn more at: http://homiah.com/
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