Uganda is renowned for her abundance in fresh and tasty fruit, a reliable farm-to-table chain and generally organic produce that gives people the real taste of quality before long-distance transportation and extended shelf life take a toll on the items.
This abundance, however, is not without limitations especially regarding storage and preservation.
The rush to sell off agricultural produce before it spoils is a hustle in the open fresh food markets where supply sustains the immediate demand and more is left as sellers await customers. It’s not uncommon for a tomato farmer to encounter loses simply because an order was cancelled or it wasn’t a good business day at the market.
In 2021 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sunday Bob George, a senior agriculture officer in charge of food security at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) told Uganda Radio Network that farmers were applying pesticides too close to crop harvest or sale to buy produce time on the shelf without being spoilt by pests.
This malpractice, Sunday said, left excessive residue levels on the produce which when consumed by humans, poses serious health risks.
The fear of post-harvest pest infestation and the limited proper storage to elongate produce shelf life has, as per other media reports, forced farmers and suppliers to use unlicensed and potentially harmful preservation concoctions to avoid losses caused by spoilage.
Produce like apples which are kept in cold chains are prone to storage scald – the browning or blackening of the fruit skin. Most suppliers use chemicals like diphenylamine – a regulated pesticide which interestingly doesn’t kill insects, weeds or hamper fungal growth – to douse apples and keep them fresh looking.
READ: Experts Tip Farmers in Virunga Massif on Climate-Smart, Regenerative Agriculture
Some studies have actually found traces of the chemical in apple products such as applesauce. This goes to show how much of the chemical residue is persistent even when sprayed externally.
#HAPPENING_NOW: Kampala Veg Fest
📌 | National Theatre pic.twitter.com/raQBOxIlyY— Uganda National Cultural Centre (@UNCC_UG) November 10, 2024
A safer, organic way to keep produce fresh for longer
It’s fresh produce but what if there was a way to keep it fresh for longer while eliminating the cold chain?
Sio Valley Technologies, one of the enterprises that exhibited at Kampala Vegan Festival, a brainchild of the Vegan Society of Uganda led by Mrs. Innocent Nabasa Amumpaire, on Sunday showcased their flagship product KaFresh, an all-natural, post-harvest spray that prevents fungal and bacterial growth on fruits and vegetables while extending the shelf life to three times.
Sio Valley Technologies, an agro-tech startup based in Kenya and Uganda, is rethinking agriculture and food value chains starting with the most inequitable part – food storage.
“Traditional approaches to crop storage involve Reefer trucks and cold room construction, both of which are expensive to buy, build, and operate, not to mention reliant on all-too-unreliable infrastructure. These barriers have worked to keep most agricultural value chain participants “out of the cold”, leading to crop spoilage rates of over 60% for fresh fruits and vegetables,” the company website indicates.
Sio Valle is rethinking the agriculture production chain “from the ground up” with products that are “100% food-grade, plant-based, and free from synthetic chemicals.”
The plant based glazing agent “KaFresh” enables all consumers to store fresh foods without the need to invest in a home fridge, the expensive refrigerated truck for the suppliers or cold room for markets.
Speaking to PrimeNews on Sunday, Maryanne Karamagi from Sio Valley Technologies noted that the glazing agent is made from food-grade, non-GMO ingredients and eliminates the use of chmical preservatives that pose health risks to consumers.
“The glazing agent is actually a thin, edible coating made from plant extracts is sprayed over the produce to protects produce from spoilage and disease, keeping it in prime condition. This extends the shelf life of the produce without being refrigerated,” Karamagi said.
Giving fruits a dry touch
The famous Ugandan sweet pineapple can be enjoyed in another form, a chewy, tasty snack! Forget the worry about the extra coin charged on that extra bag of delicious looking pineapples as you exit Uganda, dried pineapple slices are saving the day.
Maima Organics, a Ugandan Company produces dried fruit including mango, pineapple, apple banana, jackfruit and gooseberries. Their other products include cashew and almond nuts.
The company aims at working directly with farmers “to increase their household revenues through better farming techniques.”
Numerous enterprises showcased the best of the vegan food options such as soy tofu by Smart Foods Uganda, a company born as result of research and product development trials on soy-based meat and dairy alternatives at the Food Technology Business Incubation Centre, Makerere University, vegan cakes by Crave among others.