According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 40 to 50 per cent of produce in sub-Saharan Africa is lost before it reaches consumers. This waste largely results from inadequate cold chain solutions and poor handling practices, which significantly impact farmers’ earnings and threaten regional food security.

In the white meat value chain, including fish and chicken, the main challenges are unstable market access and post-harvest losses due to inadequate infrastructure in rural areas. In East Africa, approximately 50% of the population relies on poultry, fishing, or fish farming as either their primary or secondary source of livelihood. Post-harvest losses among small-scale farmers, traders, and producers in fishing reach about 40%, leaving only 60% of the produce available to consumers. This loss often results in decreased income and, to compensate, leads to overfishing, which puts additional stress on already fragile lake and ocean ecosystems.

To tackle these challenges, Keep IT Cool, a tech-driven company, has developed an efficient, demand-driven cold chain distribution platform powered by Google technology. Our aim is to make cold chain solutions both affordable and accessible, even in underserved regions like Turkana in Northern Kenya.

We offer refrigerated cooling boxes and transport solutions to smallholder fishers, fish farmers, and poultry farmers across East Africa. Our end-to-end cold chain logistics solution utilizes a technology platform to align supply (fish catch) with demand (rural and urban customers), enhancing efficiency and reducing waste throughout the value chain.