Dehydrator Egypt

[Cecelia Seiner]

i graduated from collage of agricultural ,with up to 15 years experience in food dehydration, my innovation granted a patent from Egypt academy for scientific research and technology (the second one is in process ),i granted a diploma in entrepreneurship from EU Switch me program , my innovation granted several awards :- we are the winners of UNDP/IDEASS/EBN international award on human development innovations and honored in the Royal academy of sciences Brussels, winners of EU/UNIDO Switch Med regional program, winner of GESR innovating for a cause program , winner of GREEN APPLE award UK,winner of Aid innovation challenge award Brussels , winner of Tony Elumelu African entrepreneurship program Nigeria, winner of ENERGY GLOBE award Austria

Up to 40% of Egyptian fruits and vegetables goes to waste every year, Egypt the 5th worlds tomato producer imports both of fresh and processed tomato while up to 4 million ton of its tomato produce goes to waste every year that leads to up to 88 million m 3 methane gas emission, Egypt imports up to 60% of its food needs while up to 35% of its agricultural produce goes to waste, in the same time scarcity of natural resources will prevent Egypt from reclaiming more land to feed its growing population, while the imposed lock-down blocked farmers from getting their crops to markets and high transport cost force them to leave their crops with no harvest, that increases food waste, the problem is huge (if we may consider only 4 million ton of Egyptian tomato waste) and not possible to be solved by one or more programs, even huge factories can't absorb (process) such huge amount of tomato waste, while fruits and vegetables are highly perishable , thus there is a need for quick appropriate method to enable farmers process as much as of fruits and vegetables surplus in shortest amount of time before rot can be occurred

-Smallholder farmers (up to 10 million ) who suffer of poverty, hunger, and high rate of post-harvest loss due to marketing problem, high transport cost and low market value of their produce at harvest season it enables them to extend shelf life , and add value of their crops to be consumed by their families or be sold at high price off season, while reducing crops bulk thus reducing transport cost to enable them access high value distant urban and export markets

-rural women who suffer of social norms that prevent them from working outside their homes and villages as it can form in house sustainable income in food processing to empower them socially and liberate them economically

-ECO enables low-income families to reduce food expenses, secure more healthy food for their children and bridge the gap of nutrient supply around the year by dehydrating fruits and vegetables in low price harvest season to be consumed at high price off-season

farmers suffers of poverty and hunger despite that they left their crops with no harvest when cost of transport exceed market value , tradition prevent rural women from working outside their homes and villages thus they depend economically on their husbands and families, food prices raises so fast that prevent low income families from securing enough food for their children

Egypt , Africa and Arab countries in general suffer of poverty, hunger, and high rate of unemployment, despite food dehydrators can form solution its industry is absent in Egypt and Arab countries , thus ECO committed to turn such huge need and wide market gab into business opportunity , in Egypt 4 million to of tomato go to waste , some international organizations established programs to help farmers export sun dried tomato , however sun dried tomato suffers of many shortcomings :-

1- Does not environmentally friendly as some people think:- because sun dried tomato should pass by additional energy consumer process for sanitizing before be ready to use, it needs energy consumer cold storage, and includes up to 50% of its contents water and salt thus 50% of cost of cold storage, transport , shipping and packaging go to water and salt not tomato

-does not economically viable as price of exporting one kg of fresh tomato after drying most of time less than selling it in local markets thus most farmers prefer not to dry tomato naturally and leave it to waste for reasons above ECO worked hard to find appropriate solution for such unsolved huge problem

ECO teamrecognized the huge need and wide market gab of food dehydrators industry, itrecognized only one South African food dehydrators provider all over Africa, theunsolved problem of 4 million ton of Egyptian fresh tomato that go to wasteevery year, rural suffer of poverty and hunger while leaving crops to rot withno harvest ,Egypt imports up to 60% of its food need some are dehydrated fruitsand vegetables while up to 35% of its fruits and vegetables produce go to wasteevery year , thus ECO committed to find solution for such huge challenge , inthe same time and just creating Facebook page we received hundreds of orders todeliver our products not just to Egyptian customers but also to many of Araband African countries that form huge blue ocean market to ECO

ECObased on a team of professionals, its team leader graduated from collage ofagricultural with up to 15 years' experience in food dehydration, such deep experience enables ECO team to offerunique customer service ,ECO shortlisted by 2 European universities (in bothItaly and Turkey )as potential partner in 2 proposals offered to EU funded PRIMAproject to improve food dehydration/dehydrators industry in Mediterraneancountries, ECO innovative products granted a patent and 9 awards from aroundthe globe, despite there are many of food drying/dehydration methods, till nowonly traditional , unreliable ,sun drying method is the most famous known in Egypt,Africa and Arab countries, the absence of experts in modern technology of fooddehydration is one of main reasons of absence of food dehydrators industry, ECOis the only that can bridge such gab not just in Egypt but also in Africa and Arab countries, ECOteam also passed many of entrepreneurship programs from different countries

ECO faced 3 main obstacles:- 1- financing prototypes :- ECO team used its private money to manufacture first 2 prototypes (small commercial model food dehydrators ) , then it offered its prototypes to national and international entrepreneurship programs with a call for financial support that enabled it to secure some money to manufacture another 3 prototypes for another 2 models (family and medium commercial scale models) , however it still strives to get some financial support to manufacture the most needed , its big dream the large commercial scale model

2- despite ECO can pay for itself in just few months, cost of operation was a great challenge , we solved this challenge by powering ECO by both of conventional and biomass sources of energy that reduced operation cost by up to 3 times

3- dehydrators Capacity: - most of our customers ask for higher capacity food dehydrators to enable them dehydrating as much as of fruits and vegetables in shortest amount of time :- ECO team after many attempts and thanks to pre-dehydrating fruits and vegetables by biomass managed to reduce crops bulkiness and moisture content thus increase dehydrators capacity and reduces operation time/cost by 3 times

ECO is the only enables farmers for the first time turning crops surplus that usually goes to waste into powdered fruit drinks and powdered tomato sauce IN JUST 6 HOURS, with highest quality that meets international quality standards and lowest operation cost, unlike (tomato traditional sun drying method foe example ) tomato dehydrated by ECO is ready to sell with no need for additional processing steps, not in need for cold storage, 100% pure that reduces cost of transport , storage and packaging by up to 50%, of high quality keeps most of natural enzymes , vitamins and color that increases revenue by up to 10 times comparing with traditional sun drying method,ECO can serve by both of renewable and conventional sources of energy,ECO also provides not just food dehydrators but a whole system for food preservation and storage , it based on a mix of next generation of food dehydrators and modified traditional methods of food drying and storage

Increasing farmers' income increases their ability to pay for children schooling, and to pay more for health care, increasing food security reducing hunger and children malnutrition/and mortality , creating in house sustainable income for rural women empower them socially and liberate them economically to be active members at their communities while contributing in reducing gender inequality , helping families to reduce food expenses helps them to secure more nutrient food for their children, engaging all community members (farmers rural women , and even urban families) in food dehydration can considerably contribute in solving the problem of post harvest loss

ECO has a plan to establish a sister company for food dehydration to dehydrate fruits and vegetables for farmers who do not afford cost of its products for a fee , such company will enable ECO to accept % of price of its products (profit margin) as in kind payment (fresh fruits and vegetables ) to be dehydrated and sold via its sister company

ECO suffers of financial weakness that limits its ability to achieve full potentials,it seek collaboration with international organizations and overseas business partners to access African and Arab countries markets

ECO has huge impact on socioeconomic situation of small holder farmers ,it can considerably contributes in achieving the UN sustainable development goals thus it participated in many of national and international competitions with a hope to attract financial support, it has already received many call for collaboration with overseas business partners from Arab and African countries that can ease access such huge markets

ECO included in 2 proposals for 2 European countries (Italy, and Turkey ) as potential partner in EU funded PRIMA program for improving food dehydration /dehydrators industry in Mediterranean countries

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