Postharvest workshop during FAB Forum

What economic opportunities do postharvest losses present? And what can the Postharvest Network (PHN) do to help your organization to capitalize these opportunities? This is what has been discussed during a presentation the PHN held, together with BoP Inc, during the NABC Francophone African Business (FAB) Forum on June 19th.

During the presentation, we provided two examples of PHN projects in Benin and Indonesia and zoomed in on a joint initiative of the PHN and BoP Inc: The Food Connection Challenge (FCC), a challenge that encourages existing businesses to connect innovation and business ideas to reduce postharvest losses. The FCC is currently being run in Benin and Nigeria and future editions for Mali and Niger are currently being developed.

Following the presentation, participants in the room were asked about their experiences and challenges in dealing with postharvest losses reduction and translating that to business ideas. Questions that popped up were: who has to take the lead in solving these issues throughout the value chain and in its specific stages? And, perhaps more importantly, who is going to pay for the necessary solutions? Obviously there was no single answer to solve these issues, but the main thought was that to effectively reduce postharvest losses in value chains there is a clear need for chain coordination.

If you want to know more about the PHN and what we could do for you, please contact us at info@postharvestnetwork.com.