Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00 Watermelons, avocados, fruits that perish just within a few days of being harvested.
00:05 Kenya's temperatures are to blame, and many don't have access to adequate cold storage
00:10 facilities.
00:12 Between 30 percent and 40 percent of produce spoils before it even reaches the market.
00:17 The major causes of post-harvest loss is how the produce is managed immediately after harvest.
00:28 For example, if you have cereals, have they been dried properly before you store it?
00:34 What facilities are you using for storage?
00:38 Cold rooms like these ones could help reduce losses.
00:42 This Kenyan company now offers rural farmers solar-powered mobile cold storage facilities.
00:48 It has won the backing of 12,000 farmers hoping to reduce post-harvest losses of fresh produce.
00:54 Solar energy is one of the free sources of energy that could reduce our operational costs.
00:59 So we opted to use solar, which enables us to deploy anywhere.
01:04 The company also buys products from farmers and connects them directly with large distributors,
01:09 making them less dependent on middlemen.
01:12 "They say they're coming to collect our harvests, but then they come late, and our oranges are
01:20 spoiled.
01:21 Now we have SocoFresh.
01:22 They're doing really well and they pay us on time."
01:26 The business has now extended its services to fish farmers, also highly dependent on
01:31 the cold chain.
01:32 [BLANK_AUDIO]