The Sunday Mail
Youth Buzz
Fatima Bulla-Musakwa
Zimbabwe is one of the developing countries affected by “food loss”. This occurs when perishable foods – including crops, fruits, vegetables and meat – go to waste due to lack of proper preservation.
Inspired by the need to ensure farmers in his community increase the shelf-life of their harvests, a youthful businessman, Mr Kuziva Chatukuta, is championing food preservation and value addition in Murewa through innovative ways.
His company, Chatukuta Dried Fruits, has launched a project that involves construction of solar-powered dryers to preserve food.
“My dryer costs between US$1 800 and US$2 000 to assemble compared to the conventional ones that go for at least US$20 000 or even more, when importing. We get most of the material we use to assemble the dryers from the Mbare market. It’s cheaper to have a dryer that is custom-made because it suits our weather conditions. It is better than buying an automatic one, which cannot be adjusted or fixed when it is out of order,” Mr Chatukuta said.
With this unique enterprise, Mr Chatukuta is making brisk business.
He can dry and process a wide range of fruits and vegetables that are readily supplied by farmers from Murewa, as well as surrounding areas such as Mutoko and Uzumba.
Currently, mangoes and bananas are in huge supply. In the past, some would rot, but through Mr Chatukuta’s initiative, these can be dried to increase their shelf-life and be sold between May and November next year, when they are in short supply, and fetch more on the market.
“With mangoes, we have found a way of preserving them. When they are still firm and yellowish, we remove the seed and cut the fruit into slices. It takes only 18 to 24 hours to dry the mangoes in the sun. Through this process, they can be preserved for months.”
His method, which does not use any preservatives, ensures that the nutritional benefits of fruits or vegetables are maintained.
Since 2016, when Mr Chatukuta and his wife Shingairai Nyoni mooted the idea of venturing into food processing, they have covered a lot of ground, with the assistance of various partners.
In 2017, the couple participated in a competition hosted in Zambia by African Women in Agriculture, Research and Development. In the neighbouring country, they received training in research and development in agriculture and processing.
The platform connected them to SNV Zimbabwe, which was running a project called the United Nations Joint Partnership for Gender Equality. The organisation assisted him to formalise his business.
The Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development also assisted him to access platforms such as the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.
In 2018, Mr Chatukuta and his wife successfully applied for a $5 000 grant from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, which is run by Nigerian business mogul Elumelu. With that cash, they branded their business.
Through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Mr Chatukuta has been trained on quality management, food safety and farm auditing.
To give back to the community, Mr Chatukuta has trained various groups, including ones from Mwenezi, Neshuro, Chiredzi, Mutare and Mbare on food safety, as well as how to process fruits. The efforts are bearing fruit as groups – including those for people living with disability and albinism, and youths struggling with drug addiction – are venturing into food processing projects.
For the past five years, he has also been assisted by ZimTrade to access markets and enhance international networks.
“We have worked over a long period to innovate and improve on our dryers. What we have been crying out for are dryers with larger capacity so that we can meet export demands.
“The smaller ones are working perfectly and giving us good results, but we need larger ones to meet huge demand.”
◆ Twitter: @BullaFatima
Businessman champions food preservation
The Sunday Mail
Youth Buzz
Fatima Bulla-Musakwa
Zimbabwe is one of the developing countries affected by “food loss”. This occurs when perishable foods – including crops, fruits, vegetables and meat – go to waste due to lack of proper preservation.
Inspired by the need to ensure farmers in his community increase the shelf-life of their harvests, a youthful businessman, Mr Kuziva Chatukuta, is championing food preservation and value addition in Murewa through innovative ways.
His company, Chatukuta Dried Fruits, has launched a project that involves construction of solar-powered dryers to preserve food.
“My dryer costs between US$1 800 and US$2 000 to assemble compared to the conventional ones that go for at least US$20 000 or even more, when importing. We get most of the material we use to assemble the dryers from the Mbare market. It’s cheaper to have a dryer that is custom-made because it suits our weather conditions. It is better than buying an automatic one, which cannot be adjusted or fixed when it is out of order,” Mr Chatukuta said.
With this unique enterprise, Mr Chatukuta is making brisk business.
He can dry and process a wide range of fruits and vegetables that are readily supplied by farmers from Murewa, as well as surrounding areas such as Mutoko and Uzumba.
Currently, mangoes and bananas are in huge supply. In the past, some would rot, but through Mr Chatukuta’s initiative, these can be dried to increase their shelf-life and be sold between May and November next year, when they are in short supply, and fetch more on the market.
“With mangoes, we have found a way of preserving them. When they are still firm and yellowish, we remove the seed and cut the fruit into slices. It takes only 18 to 24 hours to dry the mangoes in the sun. Through this process, they can be preserved for months.”
His method, which does not use any preservatives, ensures that the nutritional benefits of fruits or vegetables are maintained.
Since 2016, when Mr Chatukuta and his wife Shingairai Nyoni mooted the idea of venturing into food processing, they have covered a lot of ground, with the assistance of various partners.
In 2017, the couple participated in a competition hosted in Zambia by African Women in Agriculture, Research and Development. In the neighbouring country, they received training in research and development in agriculture and processing.
The platform connected them to SNV Zimbabwe, which was running a project called the United Nations Joint Partnership for Gender Equality. The organisation assisted him to formalise his business.
The Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development also assisted him to access platforms such as the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.
In 2018, Mr Chatukuta and his wife successfully applied for a $5 000 grant from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, which is run by Nigerian business mogul Elumelu. With that cash, they branded their business.
Through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Mr Chatukuta has been trained on quality management, food safety and farm auditing.
To give back to the community, Mr Chatukuta has trained various groups, including ones from Mwenezi, Neshuro, Chiredzi, Mutare and Mbare on food safety, as well as how to process fruits. The efforts are bearing fruit as groups – including those for people living with disability and albinism, and youths struggling with drug addiction – are venturing into food processing projects.
For the past five years, he has also been assisted by ZimTrade to access markets and enhance international networks.
“We have worked over a long period to innovate and improve on our dryers. What we have been crying out for are dryers with larger capacity so that we can meet export demands.
“The smaller ones are working perfectly and giving us good results, but we need larger ones to meet huge demand.”
◆ Twitter: @BullaFatima
Share This:
More Stories: