Limpopo avocado oil production factory wins major prize

The state-of-the-art avocado oil production factory, Ecovado in Dovheni village, Vhembe District in Limpopo has been named the winner of Food Lover’s Market’s Seeds of Change 2026 enterprise development initiative.

The Seeds of Change programme was created by Food Lover’s Market to support emerging South African food entrepreneurs with the potential to become more sustainable, scalable and retail-ready. This also means that Evocado will soon be available in Food Lover’s Market stores.

This was after the top 10 social entrepreneurs attended a bootcamp week in Cape Town, and an intensive day of pitching to a panel of Food Lover’s Market executives and specialists.

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Through Seeds of Change, Ecovado will receive further support to help strengthen its business for the next stage of growth.

This includes mentorship, retail insight and guidance to help improve packaging, branding, quality systems and customer offering.

Co-founded by husband and wife, Hulisani Mabugana and Hulisani Mudau, Ecovado has already created permanent jobs for local residents. It was created to solve a very real challenge facing many avocado-growing communities.

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It manufactures Avocado oil and Avocado seed powder from unripe avocados, where the oil is used for cooking, while the seed powder can be used for various purposes such as health treatment, food preparation and other health-related purposes.

“Ecovado is more than a food business. It is a vehicle for rural economic development and empowerment,” co-founder Hulisani Mabugana was quoted by BizCommunity.

“Every bottle represents the hard work of local farmers, workers and communities who believe in creating value from South African agriculture. Our vision is to transform avocados into opportunity, prosperity and lasting positive change.”