Solar drying business links rural farmers with export markets.

Fruits of the Nile, a brain child of Adam Brett and Angello Ndyaguma., was set up in the early 1990s because they wanted to find a way for Ugandan farmers to process and market their fresh fruits and vegetables. As a land locked country with poor transport infrastructure, no glass manufacture or canning facilities, Ugandan farmers were frequently left with fresh agricultural produce going to waste for lack of markets.

Adam and Angello designed affordable, easy-to-construct solar driers made from frames, locally available mosquito meshing and long lasting plastic (the only imported material). Working with local development agencies, they trialed the technology with innovative farmers.

It worked!

Fruits of the Nile exports about 120 tonnes/year of high-quality dried banana and pineapple from its factory in Njeru, Uganda. The fresh fruit is prepared and dried in simple solar driers by 120 producer groups in rural areas: these groups buy fruit from over 800 farmers and employ about 500 labourers.

Fruits of the Nile currently operates to FairTrade standards and, through rigorous training, monitoring and quality control, is converting the whole supply chain to organic production. It is hoped that organic certification will expand the export markets for Fruits of the Nile, since all in the supply chain and the business are keen to increase production.

In 2008, Fruit of the Nile won an Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy identifying them as one of the pioneering renewable energy projects from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

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