Meet the Mauritian Side-Hustlers Turning Summer Into a Business

Every summer in Mauritius brings heat, beaches and mangoes. For some young islanders, it also brings an opportunity to turn a family tradition or a creative hobby into a small but growing business.

Faiz and Fadil Khaidoo have taken one of Mauritius's most beloved seasonal fruits and given it a modern twist. The brothers sell freshly sliced mangoes paired with a variety of sauces at locations in Port Louis, the capital, and Flic-en-Flac, the popular beach town on the west coast. The concept updates a deeply familiar Mauritian street-food experience, where ripe mangoes eaten with salt, chilli or tamarind sauce have long been a summer staple, and packages it in a way that appeals to younger consumers looking for variety and presentation.

Their venture reflects a wider pattern seen across the island each summer: individuals and families leveraging local ingredients, cultural knowledge and social media reach to create small seasonal income streams, often without large start-up costs.

Meanwhile, in Goodlands, a town in the north of the island, Elodie Wong-Yick is building something more year-round. Her brand, Candelo, centres on handmade candles that she designs and produces herself. Candle-making has grown steadily as a craft business sector in Mauritius over recent years, driven partly by demand from the local gift market and partly by tourists seeking locally made souvenirs with a distinctive island character.

What links these entrepreneurs is not a business school background or access to significant capital. It is the decision to treat a personal passion as the starting point for a commercial idea, then find a way to reach customers directly, whether through street presence or an online brand identity.

Mauritius has a long tradition of informal and family-run small businesses, known locally as PME (petites et moyennes entreprises, or small and medium enterprises). Government bodies such as the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority, known as SMEDA, exist specifically to support this sector with training, funding guidance and market access. But many of the most visible micro-entrepreneurs operate outside formal support structures, at least in their early stages, relying instead on word of mouth and social platforms.

The summer season, which in Mauritius runs roughly from November through April, creates a natural window for this kind of activity. Increased domestic tourism, school holidays, and a general uptick in outdoor socialising all create footfall and demand that makes pop-up or street-level selling more viable.

What this means is that behind the mangoes and the scented candles is a genuine economic story. Young Mauritians are finding ways to generate income by combining cultural familiarity with modern presentation, filling gaps in the local market that larger businesses often overlook. For anyone watching the Mauritian economy, these small ventures are worth taking seriously.

Source: Le Defi Media