FOOD PRESERVATION : HOW TO PREVENT POST HARVEST LOSSES AND ENSURE FOOD SECURITY AND SAFETY.

  Nigerian entrepreneur offers solution to post harvest losses. As a vegetable farmer himself, Ikegwuonu has first-hand experience of the huge post-harvest losses incurred because of a lack of cold storage.

In Nigeria, it is estimated about 60% of smallholder farmers’ fruits and vegetables spoil due to inadequate storage and agro-processing facilities. This idea can be extended by having a mobile cooling truck,from farm to markets.

The post harvest losses can be curbed by using solar dryers   a form of preservation and also extend shelf-life of produce.

 These cold hubs can also come in handy in the meat industry. Butchers that have left over beef  use cold rooms, but introducing a solar store  will save cost and ensure the cold chain is maintained.
 

Preservation and processing is a bullet proof method to curb waste and extend shelf-life of produce.

 Thinking of investing in the agricultural sector? then think along these lines, cold hub chains, cooling trucks, vans. The profitability will  increase if this venture is mobile, trucks collecting from designated points for onward delivery to the cold box or store.

Ikegwuonu is addressing this challenge with Cold Hubs – a solar-powered walk-in cold-room solution aimed at farmers, retailers, and wholesalers.

The cold rooms are installed at major food production and consumption centers, such as markets and farms.

HOW TO START PREMIUM PROCESSING CHICKEN BUSINESS.

The clamp down on importation of frozen poultry to the country has called for strategic planning and marketing of our home grown poultry.The poultry farmers are working relentlessly to ensure that the products are readily available and very affordable.

 The farmers have joined forces with marketers,cold store operators and various marts.The farmers sell their products to the marketers,who in turn process for customers in the market.This is usually for customers that prefer to buy live chicken and process them.

The cold room operators have gone a step further,by liaising with farmers and procuring live chicken which they process and package the chicken for customers.These are presented as full chicken,quarter or half chicken,they also sell in parts depending on the taste of the client.

These type of home processed chicken can easily be recognized as the feathering points are still visible,unlike the machine plucked birds. There are other marketers that buy from large farms where production processes s are automatic,the birds are plucked with large machines,processed and packaged for sale in supermarkets,cold rooms and shopping malls.

The poultry farmers have you covered irrespective of your choice,so patronize your local farmers. The major advantages of homegrown "NAIJA" CHICKEN is that they are not pumped with growth hormones or preserved with carcinogenic chemicals,they are also not loaded with antibiotics and they are so tasty.