Malawi’s iconic NALI peri-peri hot sauce highly acclaimed on CNN Inside Africa

* The documentary shines a light on the people behind the heat — hardworking farmers, thriving communities, and a proudly Malawian success story making waves across Africa and beyond

* From the farm to the bottle, this is more than just chili — this is empowerment; this is resilience; this is Malawi

By Duncan Mlanjira

Malawi’s iconic NALI sauce, dubbed ‘Africa’s hottest peri-peri hot sauce’, has been highly acclaimed on CNN Inside Africa and attested to that it has great potential to contribute to the country’s export earnings along with its main ingredient of Bird’s Eye chili farming.

In the special feature, entitled the ‘Red Gold, the documentary explores how Malawian farmers are transforming their livelihoods through the growing of Bird’s Eye chili, which is “one of the country’s most impactful agricultural exports”.

It explains that the country’s agriculture sector accounts for 35% of its GDP, whose export is mainly tobacco but the Bird’s Eye chili — if properly encouraged to be grown on a large scale, it has potential to tap in from the global market worth over US$4.8 billion.

The narration began by highlighting Mulanje Mountain as a World Heritage site “famed for its natural beauty and cultural significance — but beyond the landscape, Malawi’s agricultural heartland has also gained a global reputation for producing a small fruit that pack a powerful punch — the Bird’s Eye chili”.

The narrator explains that the Bird’s Eye chili is grown across Africa and Asia “but the African variety is thicker, hotter, more pungent, which has become the backbone of one of the world’s most recognisable flavours, the peri peri”.

It was filmed in Malawi, featuring Nali Limited’s Managing Director, Orpa Khoromana-Barlucchi — daughter to the NALI Sauce founder, Alford Nali-lo Khoromana — who says: “In Malawi, that same chili is part of daily life. The Bird’s Eye chili is so famous because of its taste, its pungency.

“It’s very spicy and its just goes well with every meal. I myself, who has grown up with chilies, I have it honestly for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and it’s loved all over the world for its taste.

“It really adds to a meal. The Malawian Bird’s Eye chili is known around the world to be the best as it is very pungent in terms of the heat, which is quite high on the heat scale.

“From the farm to the bottle, this is more than just chili — this is empowerment; this is resilience; this is Malawi’s Red Gold.”

The documentary, which can be accessed through; https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M5IcYBQ-6zQ&pp shines a light on the people behind the heat — hardworking farmers, thriving communities, and a proudly Malawian success story making waves across Africa and beyond.

She adds that farmers grow it across the country to sell it to Nali Limited and also interviewed in the documentary is founding member, Nali-lo Khoromana’s wife, Monica, who indicated that when the demand for the product was growing, they encouraged farmers to grow the Bird’s Eye chili by supplying them with seeds.

Over the years, Bird’s Eye chili says the farmers are trained on right agricultural practices and even are supplied with necessary equipment for irrigation in order to produce more to meet the high demand for NALI Sauce and to export the excess.

NALI Sauce brands have reportedly attained cult status with chili lovers in Malawi and throughout the world for their hotness and taste, whose humble beginnings data back to the 1970s

It is currently several different flavours — Hot, Gold, Garlic, Ginger, Curry Masala, Chicken BBQ, Steak BBQ and Kambuzi, whose label on each bottle comes with a warning in Chichewa, that reads; ‘Abale Samalani (Friends, take care) — whose heat level is approximately 175,000 Scoville heat units.

Khoromana-Barlucchi attests to that “normally, the Bird’s Eye chili starts from about 50,000 and can go up to 175,000 plus and the Malawi Bird’s Eye chili hits the higher ends most times”.

Alford Nali-lo Khoromana founded Nali Limited in 1974, initially established as a proprietorship before being incorporated as Nali Farms Limited in 1983 and later changing to Nali Limited in 1985.

The company has been engaged in the growing and export of spices, including the Bird’s Eye chilies and by the end of 1978, when Nali chilies went into great demand, Monica Khoromana told CNN Inside Africa that they began adding value by creating the iconic NALI Sauce.

Her daughter, who manages Nali Limited since the passing of Nali-lo Khoromana in October 1997, with Monica Khoromana serving as the board chair, also indicated that Nali Limited has about 3,000 farmers that help to grow the chillis.