Limawa

Limawa is addressing Africa’s crop spoilage crisis through our proprietary solar-powered cooling technology that makes cold chain logistics 3x cheaper 

30% of the produce we harvest in Africa ends up wasted, because we lack widespread and affordable access to the cold storage technology needed to keep produce fresh after harvest. After all, cold chain logistics in Africa is 9 times more expensive than anywhere else on the planet. This is primarily due to high fuel and maintenance costs, as well as the import-driven nature of our logistics value chain. Each component in the cold chain is imported, from the trucks and compressors that keep produce cool, to the parts that keep them running, and even the maintenance experts that repair them when they break down. 

And with 80% of Africa’s farmers being smallholders, the prohibitive cost of cooling keeps them in the same cycle of subsistence our families experienced. Essentially, cold storage scarcity turns harvesting into a time bomb. After all, every day farmers don’t sell, is another day their produce rots. African farmers lose over 25% of their income to crop spoilage every year, but they are far from the only victims. Ultimately, crop spoilage leaves 300 million Africans starving every year. 

At Limawa, we're on a mission to alleviate post-harvest losses on the continent using Africa’s most abundant resource - sunlight! We provide solar refrigeration solutions that transform the way food is preserved and transported, ensuring that our continent’s produce feeds families, not landfills. Our modular cooling units can be installed on cold rooms and on vehicles as small as tricycles and as large as trucks. They run independently of the vehicle’s engine and can operate on battery power for up to 48 hours without sunlight, ensuring that breakdowns and bad weather don’t affect the cold chain. Critically, our solution is powered by solar energy instead of diesel, meaning we can make the cost of cold chain transportation up to 3x cheaper than traditional refrigerated trucks.