Food Processing

Byagatonda Emmanuel and his wife Murerehe Speciose live in a prime coffee-producing area in Rwanda, but for years they produced low-quality coffee in small quantities.

Access to credit frees Haitian farmers to sell and invest on their own terms. As part of the Haiti Hope Project, TechnoServe and its partners have launched a pilot loan program for farmers who have difficulty accessing credit in Haiti.

Meet the owner of a business that supplies affordable, ready-to-eat frozen foods for a growing number of city dwellers in Kenya.

Sam Koole, chairman of the Kainja Mango Farmers Association, remembers a time only a few years ago when the fruit from the Sena, a variety of mango native to eastern Uganda, was left to rot on the ground. Since launching Project Nurture in 2010, local farmers are no longer taking the Sena for granted.

TechnoServe works to help farmers in San Martin, Peru increase productivity and improve the quality of their crops, promote value-added processes such as organic certification and foster related entrepreneurship and small business growth.

An estimated 25% of world food crops, including maize, peanuts and cassava, are affected by aflatoxin contamination. These crops constitute the staple foods for the majority of African countries.

Even in the poorest of countries, business opportunities exist. People have demand for goods and services, and they have the potential to supply them. All too often, though, markets in these countries fail.

In the winter of 2012, I joined TechnoServe directly from a management consulting position in San Francisco. Four months and more than 100 stakeholder interviews later, what was once a side note on a scope of work now has great impact on how TechnoServe looks at dairy interventions.

Believe it or not, it has been more than two months since I arrived in Maputo.

Henry Gaga is a Food Technology Specialist with TechnoServe in Malawi and shares his insight into food processing in Malawi.