Malawi Fruits and Innovate UK

Malawi Fruits received news about support for innovative projects that they are thrilled to be part of. Innovate UK is the arm of the UK Government which funds companies, universities and NGOs like Malawi Fruits to research and test innovative approaches which have the potential to make a huge difference in the developing world. Malawi Fruits were part of two bids for very different projects and were amazed and excited to have won support for both of them!

Malawi Fruits are working with Hypergen UK and the University of Edinburgh to develop a 3d-printed gas turbine generator for use on farms in developing countries. Chicken poop and farm wastes can be used to produce biogas but it is difficult to use that biogas effectively in Malawi because it is low grade and there is no infrastructure to compress and distribute it. Their idea is to produce the gas on the farm, use that gas to generate electricity using the new gas turbine generator, and then the electricity can be used directly on the farm to pump water for irrigation. It’s an elegant, circular operation that minimises the need for transport at every stage.

The second project, called Coolrun Malawi, will use innovative cooling technology to enable Malawi Fruits to set up six kiosks at strategic points to sell refrigerated fruit and vegetables. This will provide great new retail jobs for women and will give them increased sales outlets for all the vegetables grown in our greenhouses and on our farms. Working with Hubl Logistics Ltd and Aston University, they are developing special Cool Pods which will be the sales points for the vegetables.

Malawi Fruits have never been short of ideas but they feel privileged to have the opportunity to work with high-tech companies and universities to develop these ideas and the financial support from Innovative UK is a huge endorsement.