IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, 45% OF FOOD SPOILS MAINLY DUE TO LACK OF COLD STORAGE
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What we do
THE PROBLEM
In much of the developing world, postharvest losses are as high as 80% and the cold‐storage chain is virtually non‐existent due to the high cost of equipment and spotty electricity. Because fresh produce can perish in a matter of days under ambient temperatures, temperature control alone can extend the shelf life by weeks or even months.
THE SOLUTION
Solar Freeze is pioneering mobile cold storage units powered by renewable energy for rural smallholder farmers, to help them reduce the huge challenge of post-harvest loss in much of the developing world, postharvest losses are as high as 80% and the cold-storage chain is virtually non-existent due to the high cost of equipment and spotty electricity.
Company's story
Our Specialty
Solar Freeze uses an integrated approach to Postharvest management recognizing that it is a systems-based challenge and requires an integrated innovation strategy that incorporates technological and financial innovations, capacity building across the value chain, enhanced market access and other elements to achieve impact at scale.
Temperature management is the key tool for reducing temperature losses in the developing world. Very few smallholder farmers have access to cooling or cool storage facilities, and even refrigerated transportation is a rarity.
The unreliability of local electricity supplies, the expense of conventional coolers, and the lack of technical expertise for the installation and maintenance all have led to the search for alternative solutions such as evaporative cooling systems.
Nevertheless, mechanical refrigeration still represents a simple and efficient solution to cooling produce, and is usually the only practical means for cooling to temperatures near freezing. For resource-limited farmers in the developing world, cold rooms and transportation systems employing mechanical refrigeration are economically and practically infeasible.
We are testing an innovative system, the Solar Freeze(TM), to help smallholder farmers effectively deal with postharvest loss through a holistic approach from storage to transportation and selling produce by using renewable energy from the farm gate though mobile solar powered cold rooms to the transportation of fresh produce via energy efficient trucks and finally to the end consumer who mainly include bottom of the pyramid clients in towns and cities who will benefit from reduced prices of food and better nutrition from our innovation .
Temperature management is the key tool for reducing temperature losses in the developing world. Very few smallholder farmers have access to cooling or cool storage facilities, and even refrigerated transportation is a rarity.
The unreliability of local electricity supplies, the expense of conventional coolers, and the lack of technical expertise for the installation and maintenance all have led to the search for alternative solutions such as evaporative cooling systems.
Nevertheless, mechanical refrigeration still represents a simple and efficient solution to cooling produce, and is usually the only practical means for cooling to temperatures near freezing. For resource-limited farmers in the developing world, cold rooms and transportation systems employing mechanical refrigeration are economically and practically infeasible.
We are testing an innovative system, the Solar Freeze(TM), to help smallholder farmers effectively deal with postharvest loss through a holistic approach from storage to transportation and selling produce by using renewable energy from the farm gate though mobile solar powered cold rooms to the transportation of fresh produce via energy efficient trucks and finally to the end consumer who mainly include bottom of the pyramid clients in towns and cities who will benefit from reduced prices of food and better nutrition from our innovation .
Our story
We are a team of a new young generation of Africans with an average age of 27years. Like many our age, we watched our parents and grandparents and those before them work tirelessly toiling and moiling in the rural farms only for a huge chunk of their fresh produce to rot away due to lack of proper cold storage units. Often times, middle men would quickly swoop in and offer dirt cheap prices and farmers would be forces to sell for a song out of desperation and fear of post-harvest loss. Lesson number one we learned in early life: Don’t do agriculture! It’s a backbreaking endeavor that will leave you with crusty hands and empty pockets. We voted with our feet and opted for a better life in the big city. That was then, now the only hope we see for our generation to make an impact is through agriculture and we have decided to utilize our skills in Renewable Energy, Engineering, Agriculture, Business Management, ICT and communication to make a difference for smallholder farmers.
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