Dried mango, a happy solution to stop waste

Food and especially fruit exports are one of the most important sources of revenue in Kenya. Looking at the figures one thing becomes clear: in southern Africa alone some 50% of the fruit and vegetables grown perish during production, storage, transport or processing and therefore never end up on the market. For the farmers, whose existence depends on selling these products, these are unacceptable conditions.?Take the example of mangoes. Approximately?300,000 tons?of the mangoes grown in Kenya never make it to market. Plenty of fruit already spoils on the tree since farmers lack the resources to harvest it on time; a major proportion also gets lost during the following steps because fruit is stored poorly or for too long, is not processed quickly enough or is transported with poor protection and/or in an untimely manner. In view of the enormous poverty in the country these are untenable conditions.? Shelf life is the keyHowever, there is hope when listening to success stories like that of the company?Azuri Health?and its general manager Tei Mukunya. For five years Mukunya had been serving one of the world?s biggest tobacco companies as a marketing consultant when she accepted a consulting job with Kenyan mango farmers for a development project. Shocked by the high losses Mukunya decided to establish her own company and take care of the mango problem. She soon found out that drying is the best way to keep the fruit from spoiling. So in a hut in her backyard along with four women from the village she started to manually peel and cut the mangos to then process them with the help of an electric dehydrating device and a solar dehydrator, processing them into aromatic dried fruit.? Success - Hand-made?I did not have a clue about this business initially. I knew my way around numbers and marketing channels but not agricultural production. I had to learn all of this,? says Mukunya. Only ten years later the little operation in her backyard has become an expanding business with 30 members of staff, a small yet refined manufacturing line and a monthly output of some ten tons of dried mango. And figures are rising. ? Photo: Wipf AG??More information