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Edgar Vhera Agriculture Specialist Writer
UNITED Kingdom headquartered firm, InfraCo Africa is set to invest €5 million in cold storage infrastructure in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia and Ghana through its subsidiary, InspiraFarms Cooling, as part of efforts to curb post-harvest losses, lower greenhouse gas emissions and increase farmer profitability.
InfraCo Africa is part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), an innovative multi-donor organisation constituted in 2002 with the objective of encouraging private infrastructure investment in developing countries that contributes to economic growth and poverty reduction.
InspiraFarms Cooling was founded in 2012 with the goal of providing African agribusiness with the tools, technology and expertise to significantly reduce food losses and energy costs and access higher-value markets.
In a recent X (formerly Twitter) post titled: “Great news for Zim farmers” the Horticultural Development Council (HDC) said as over 30 percent of produce was lost after harvest due to lack of cooling facilities in Africa, InfraCo Africa had announced a new investment to expand InspiraFarms Cooling infrastructure in Africa, including Zimbabwe.
HDC Chief Executive Officer Mrs Linda Nielsen said basically InspiraFarms Cooling builds cold rooms.
“They are already active in Zimbabwe and have installed the cold facilities at Lauetta Farms. They are now expanding into Africa through a lease-to-buy model,” she said.
The HDC September-October 2021 newsletter announced that InspiraFarms Cooling had officially established its Southern Africa regional office in Harare.
“Zimbabwe has become a key market for InspiraFarms Cooling, with the Zimbabwean horticultural sector growing rapidly in response to the increasing demand for fresh fruit and vegetables in the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), Middle East, Far East and regional markets. The expansion in demand is also calling for growing use of cold chain infrastructures that easily meet international standards for exports,” said the report.
InspiraFarms Cooling designed the cold room and pack house for the growing blueberry project, added the report.
In a report titled: ‘Delivering energy-efficient cold storage solutions across Africa,’ InfraCo Africa announced the signing of an agreement with Enterprise Project Ventures Limited (EPV) committing €5 million to scale the company’s Inspira Farm cooling technology across Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ghana.
“The investment will enable Inspira Farms Cooling to pilot its ‘Cooling-as-a-Service’ model that seeks to ensure that services are affordable for customers and will generate the data necessary to unlock future investment. As food loss is the biggest contributor of GHG emissions from all the contributors within the post-harvest setting, cooling therefore needs to start as close as possible to the point of production to minimise losses,” said the report.
EPV is a UK based company with offices in Kenya and Guatemala that produces solar powered cold chain technology that is prefabricated and food-safety certified, designed to meet the needs of smallholder farmers and small-scale farming cooperatives in the horticulture and dairy sectors.
InfraCo Africa’s new head of business development, Omar Jabri, recently said: “We are pleased to be making our first investment into ‘first-mile’ cold storage. Access to Inspira Farms cooling’s energy-efficient pack houses will enable farmers to access vital pre-cooling and cold storage close to where their produce is grown, reducing the significant economic and environmental impact of post-harvest losses, can generate high-quality rural jobs along the chain and bridge the gap in quality and standards missed by producers for entering export markets and maximising their incomes.”
The report said InfraCo Africa’s investment will finance a minimum of five Inspira Farms cooling facilities operated using the ‘Cooling-as-a-Service’ model.
It is anticipated that the pilot facilities will enable Inspira Farms cooling to generate additional data to support the value of its new delivery model, enabling the business to scale and attract further finance for replication in other markets, added the report.
Cold sterilisation is important in the acceptance of perishable horticultural products on the export market, with the country currently exploring options of getting the best benefits from the Zimbabwe/China citrus trade protocol.
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