A Zambian entrepreneur and Humanity Africa, a United Kingdom charity organisation, are working together to implement solar fruit drying technology to stop the massive wastage of mangoes.

Thousands of tons of mangoes go to waste every year due to lack of storage and capacity for procession.

“Solar drying the fruit is the most obvious, simplest and cost-effective solution to avoiding the wastage,” said Leya Kawamba, cofounder of My Zambia, My Africa.

Kawamba said the partnership with Humanity Africa would see thousands of Zambian famers trained in using the solar fruit drying technique. A pilot will soon be launched in Central and Lusaka provinces.

She said this was a crucial step for value-addition to a crop that mostly ended up decomposing and also posed a public health hazard.

“This holds potential to pave way for the fruit to be packaged and exported within and outside the Southern Africa Development Community,” Kawamba said. The success of the pilot will be extended to other fruits such as pineapples.

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