The rise of banana wine in Malawi has been met with enthusiasm from both producers and consumers.
At local markets, bottles of banana wine, which sell for $3 (£2.30), are now a common sight, with vendors eager to showcase their latest creations.
“We sell them at markets across Malawi, in the capital Lilongwe and in the biggest city Blantyre and it is always sold out,” says Tennyson Gondwe, the chief executive of Community Savings and Investment Promotion (Comsip), a cooperative that has trained the women in wine production to ensure quality and taste.
Ms Nkhana says that making wine, rather than just selling raw bananas which often go to waste, has transformed her life, and those of the other women.
“Some of us built houses, some have livestock and some have chickens. We can afford to eat decent meals.”
The Twitule co-operative produces between 20-50 litres of wine a month and is hoping to buy machines to help them expand.
“We want to produce more wine. We want to move from this small production house house to a factory,” Ms Nkhana says.
And the group has even bigger plans – Comsip has asked the Malawi Bureau of Standards to approve it for export.
“People are curious,” Ms Nkhana says, smiling as she stirs the wine mixture, preparing it for fermentation.
“They want to know what it tastes like. And when they try it, they’re surprised by how good it is.”
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