Cooking Ingredientsin the Maldives

Forty-one lines across four brands, all imported directly: Shan from Pakistan, Real Thai from Thailand, Ondoliva from Spain, and Azime. This is the category a kitchen builds its base flavours from rather than its finishing sauces. Shan is the largest block at 24 lines. The pickles cover mixed, mango, lemon, garlic and chilli. The chutneys run to tomato, tamarind, plum, mango and green. The pastes cover onion, garlic, ginger, ginger garlic and green chilli. Curry powder, Himalayan pink salt in three grinds, and the biryani, tikka and tandoori cooking sauces sit alongside them. Real Thai supplies nine lines built around South East Asian cooking: red, green and massaman curry pastes, a green curry mild, Tom Yum paste, red and green curry kits, coconut milk and jasmine rice. Ondoliva covers the olive oil, in two grades — extra virgin and pomace — each carried at 250ml, 500ml and 1 litre, with extra virgin also in a 5 litre catering tin. Azime supplies sunflower oil. Beyond the oils, pack sizes run 50g, 100g, 227g, 232g, 250g, 300g, 310g, 315g, 320g, 340g, 350g, 400g and 800g, cased at 6, 12, 18, 24 or 48 units depending on the line. The Sosun test kitchen has built recipes on this range — the havaadhulee bis and kandu kukulhu on Real Thai coconut milk, and the Thai red curry fried rice on the red curry paste. Everything here is imported directly, cleared through Malé and held in the company's own temperature-controlled and dry warehousing before dispatch. Deliveries run on scheduled sea freight and speedboat services to resort docks and island retailers across the major atolls, with customs, import permits and label compliance handled in-house.