The main challenge facing small scale producers and traders in the blue economy ecosystem across the developing world is managing harvests. Post-harvest losses in this demographic have been as high as 70% due to various challenges including but not limited to: poor infrastructure, lack of skills and market access. Fish producers, in particular, are struggling with the handling of harvests because fish are a very perishable commodity. Without effective, long-lasting and affordable cold chain solutions, fish farmers face several challenges such as limited choices for timing and location of sales which lowers their revenues, supply chain gaps due to the absence of cold storage technologies which can lead to forced sales at throwaway prices (or having to throw away the fish entirely), as well as a lack of hygienic handling of the fish which lowers overall product quality affecting both sales, margins, and end consumers of the product by putting their health at risk. There are also environmental consequences from the wastage of the fish, creating issues across sea ecosystems and food webs.
Problem Size
The blue economy has a lot of potential in the great lakes region which includes East Africa. In Kenya for example, one of the main challenges that limit the potential of this industry is post-harvest losses. In some areas, it’s up to 70% due to poor infrastructure.
Proposed Solution
Post
Harvest loses is a huge problem for farmers in Rural Africa due to lack of infrastructure. We have offered affordable Solar powered freezers and fridges mainly used by fish farmers and fishermen to preserve harvests and transport them to the last mile. This is done using an innovative business model
pay-as-you-go model which has been very successful in East Africa. The KIC Boxes provides end to end, unbreakable cold chain for transport. The Cold chain solution enables fish produce to be delivered at the correct temperature without being connected to the grid (the solar power is used to provide power and stored in the battery). The solution helps meet SDGs 12 Responsible Production and consumption.
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