The exciting new frontier in PAYC cold chain in Zambia

Kukula Seed (through Live Clean Initiatives) and Frontier Technologies Livestreaming (in conjunction with IMC Worldwide, Brink, and DfID/FCDO) embarked on a journey that sought to find out if cold chain solutions have a place in the Zambian landscape towards reducing food wastage and increasing food security using a pay-as-you-chill cold storage solutions. This journey began in late 2019 and so much has been experimented on and discovered (most recent Sprint can be seen here). What we knew from Sprint 3 is that a change had to happen and Sprint 4 was focused on experimenting that change. The change simply targeted smallholder farmers as potentially being the right target market to engage in this solution.

Smallholder farmers in Chisamba, Zambia

Excitingly, we now know that it is! Kukula Seed brought in Ubuntu Meal Delivery Services (a Zambian meal delivery services company) to turn around the pilot by attracting its vast network of smallholder farmers and restaurants to connect the cold chain solution to both front- and end-users. The goal was to see if cold chain could be an integrated part of the logistical chain from farm-to-market. Smallholder farmers expressed high interest in Sprint 3 but explicitly conveyed the vital help they need in guaranteeing off-takers and aiding their high and unsustainable transportation costs from farm-to-market. To make this happen, Kukula Seed secured a cold chain truck (from a local company called Sigma Ori — a Zambian renewable energy solutions company) that Ubuntu could use to transport produce from the farmers to the cold unit, and then from the cold unit to the end-users. This is the new frontier!

New cold truck loading produce from smallholder farmers

Here’s what we discovered:

1. In the month Sprint 4 was conducted, 10 smallholder farmers engaged in the new farm-to-market process. The farmers were excited at the prospect of an intermediary picking produce from their farms and delivering it to the customer.
2. In the same month, 4 restaurants and 3 supermarkets consistently purchased produce from those farmers using the cold room as the point of sale.
3. Market vendors engaged in the process as well by purchasing directly from the cold unit adding to our customer base.
4. The cold chain unit allowed for produce to be stored and then sold at the highest price keeping farmers happy on their higher profits and savings realised (previously lost due to the nature of selling all goods in a day at any price to avoid additional losses).
5. Farmers saw a huge savings of approximately 35% engaging in this new process. Before this, those same farmers lost approximately 15% of their produce from the farm-to-market process.

What does this mean for the future?

Produce stored in cold room directly from farmers

There is massive potential in continuing this new farm-to-market process with cold chain in the centre of it. We confidently see that to make cold chain solutions a part of the farming and market landscape in Zambia work, there needs to be a clear process and link between farmers and end-users with the right partners to execute. Kukula Seed has seen a new product entry for Live Clean Initiatives to continue this work and expand seeing its massive potential in operating cold chain solutions for smallholder farmers. Ubuntu Meal Delivery has entered full footing into this new logistical process utilising its strong network of farmers and end-users. The continued strong local partnerships with Quality Catering Equipment and Sigma Ori as technical partners/providers serve for a consistent business process capable of expanding this project into 2021 on a scalable and sustainable model.

As Kukula Seed and FTL close off this pilot, we can safely and confidently say the project, albeit with its ups and downs, reached a level where a solid business model has been worked on, a clear path towards sustainability and scalability identified, and the potential for growth of this sector in Zambia hard to miss!