Cold chain in Zambia… what have we learnt so far?
Kukula Seed (through Live Clean Initiatives) in collaboration with Frontier Technologies Livestreaming (FTL) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) rolled out the first pilot under the pay-as-you-chill-cold chain solutions in Zambia in December 2019. The plan was to attract horticulture market vendors in Lusaka’s Soweto Market to use the cold hub as part of their daily operations to reduce food wastage while increasing their available stock for sale resulting in more profits and a good world all round. It has been operational since then and a lot of significant lessons have been presented for future pilots and business models.
Predicted vs observed behaviour — theory meets reality
We’ve learnt quickly that the theory on paper is not necessarily the reality on the ground. Theory — and some initial surveys with market vendors — suggests that innovations such as cold hubs should hit the ground running and be desirable. The reality is it may take a little more time than anticipated.
Since the hub has been operational, horticulture market vendors have been skeptical at best to use the cold hub. Several reasons have been pointed out for this. One possible reason is that vendors only buy enough/adequate stock for that day and nothing more, which means they have nothing to store. In short, our target customers may be too efficient at their work to benefit from a paid-for service.
Price has not necessarily proved a sticking point however. For some, it seems that adequate knowledge of the entire innovation and purpose is resulting in lack of engagement with the service.
This brings me to the optimism I displayed at the start of writing this. We now know we need to spend more time speaking with vendors and farmers on the value of cold chain, and how it can help their business in the long run and not just in the interim. We also know that public engagement is just as important as direct vendor interaction in spearheading an innovation such as cold chain. Public engagement comes in the form of engaging market groups, youth groups, women groups, farmers groups to spread the world and bring them on as allies to make cold chain attractive.
We have been very lucky to test such an innovation on the ground level with a significant amount of direct feedback from the end users that we can incorporate into the next pilot of this project. The innovation is good, the technology is sound (we had to get a few things right of course!) and the potential is amazing. To bring it all together and make the model work, we need: a) to engage the community effectively in understanding farmer and vendor needs, and explaining the long term advantages rather than short term returns; b) bring on allies to champion the project with their members; and c) show flexibility when establishing customer loyalty in the markets, e.g. through special offers of product protection in the even of food spoilage.
So, what’s next? Two fold! First, Sprint 2 will focus on user engagement experiments which includes community buy-in and awareness, champion allies, and market member-group dialogues to educate and engage over the advantages of using cold units. Secondly, Sprint 3 gives us a chance to test the pilot in Kasumbalesa Border Market which possesses great site dynamics and market potential. Sprint 3 will incorporate a new technology upgrade to the hub to allow for both freezing and cooling capabilities to increase product diversity and capacity. We believe that with Sprint 1 learning, we have a clearer way moving forward. Undoubtedly, the future of cold chain hubs will be a part of the Zambian economy in no time.
