InspiraFarms to participate at the Agri Cold Chain Summit 2022 in Ghana

While 94% of fresh fruit and vegetables go through the cold chain in Europe, this figure is under 5% across the African continent. Africa is still struggling to capture value out of the emerging trends and to distribute the benefits of the marginal gains. Some of the contributing factors to this include limited access to finance, a weaker food supply chain, inefficient value chains that have had to adapt to inadequate infrastructure, significant gaps in power distribution and the failure to adopt measures to reduce post-harvest losses. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 30-50% of farm production is lost at various points from farm to fork. This scarcity of cold chain creates a gap of missed revenue for producers, and farmers and minimise trade. InspiraFarms was founded to cater to this problem by designing its post-harvest cooling solutions to reduce food loss across emerging economies.   

In 2021, InspiraFarms and FreezeLink partnered to build and integrate the fresh produce cold chain in Ghana and West Africa as a whole. The partnership focuses on export crops supply chains, through the development of business opportunities and facilitating access to cold chain technology through asset finance, cooling-as-a-service, and technical services. 

FreezeLink has engaged the Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) Program, a joint initiative of multiple partners, to provide support in delivering such cold chain education in Ghana. Under this programme, Freezelink and InspiraFarms will convene an event in Accra dubbed the ‘Agri Cold Chain Summit 2022.’ The Agri Cold Chain Summit will be held on the 25th of October 2022 at Shipper’s House, Accra. The aim of the events is to educate fruit and vegetable producers and exporters, and other related stakeholders, on the use of cold chain solutions, to minimise food losses, increase profits and access new markets.  

Among other key topics, the event will cover themes including: 

  • How to make cooling solutions accessible; 
  • Efficient storage conditions for different fresh products; 
  • Asset finance for on-farm cold storage; 
  • Pre-harvest insurances; 
  • Innovative ways to finance the fruit and vegetable sector. 

Speakers for the event include;

  • Dr. Michele Bruni (Chief Commercial Officer, InspiraFarms)
  • Jimmy Washington (Director of Sustainability and Cold Chain Development, Carrier)
  • Marjorie Abdin (Vice President, FAGE)
  • Dr. Felix Kamassah (President, VEPEAG)
  • Samuel Yeboah (Deputy Chief Operating Officer, GIRSAL)
  • Amma Gyampo (Co-Founder and CEO, ScaleUp Africa)
  • Prof. Francis Appiah (Professor, Department of Horticulture, KNUST)

This new event will be followed by similar events in 2023 dubbed the ‘Agri Cold Chain Seminars’ in Kumasi, Ho and Kintampo. The series of events target a range of stakeholders, including commercial farmers, farmers’ associations, cooperatives, government, international donors and investors. The structure of the event will include components of presentations, panel discussions and a series of networking sessions. 

Interested in being part of this free groundbreaking event? To confirm your interest in attending the ACCS Summit, please REGISTER using the link below
https://sites.google.com/freezelink.co/accs/home