Packaging Solutions to Extend Shelf Life of Fresh Produce during Sea Freight
Open Innovation challenge delivered by the Global Alliance Africa project, supporting Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya
Opportunity Details
When
Registration Opens
08/08/2023
Registration Closes
22/09/2023
Award
Successful applicants will be given the opportunity to pitch their solution to FPEAK members. The winning applicant, as selected by FPEAK will get the opportunity to collaborate with them on a trial project. Up to GBP 25,000 seed funding is available (subject to T&Cs) to the successful finalist/s for this collaboration.
This Open Innovation challenge, delivered by the Global Alliance Africa project, is supporting the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK) to find innovative ways to increase shelf life and enable longer transportation times for perishable goods. Their priority use would be sea freight of fresh produce and flowers from Kenya to Europe, which is an increasingly attractive option to air freight, which has become costly and has reduced capacity.
Sea freight is a much cheaper and more sustainable alternative; however, it takes 20-30 days to travel from Kenya to UK/EU which causes freshness and perishability challenges for any produce exported. These innovations may include, but are not limited to, food grade coating, alternative packing materials for transport, and novel designs of customer-facing end-user packaging. They could be integrated with alternative packaging systems for in-container transport and/or specific container environments.
As a priority, packaging solutions are sought for green beans, sugar snaps and snow peas. Furthermore, solutions are sought for fruits (avocados, mangoes), herbs (basil, rosemary) and flowers (rose, mixed flowers). FPEAK are open to adopting/scaling solutions used successfully for other export crops and geographic locations.
Specific constraints for different fresh produce are mentioned in the functional and technical requirements and operating conditions sections on the Global Alliance Innovation Exchange website at the link below.
For additional details on the challenge and application process, please register here for the Information Session/Q&A at 9am BST / 11am EAT on Tue, 29th August.
Entrants to this competition must be established businesses, start-ups, SMEs or individual entrepreneurs. Africa-based entrants, UK-based entrants and those from RoW are invited to apply.