23 January 2020, Taveta, Kenya - William Kariuki and Peter Thiongo is doing a selection of bananas they have bought in the morning, some of them will be used to produce banana crisps, and others for flour.
"Baraka Blessed Group" it was started in 2018 as a Value Addition group to cater for post-harvest losses of bananas. They buy the bananas straight from the farmers, malt them for 2-3 days. When they start ripening, they are made into different shapes of crisps. Part of the bananas are chopped into tiny pieces, and sundried, and ground into flour. This flour is sold in pure form, or in blended porridge or maize meal. The peels are used as animal feed. Nothing goes to waste. They have now been identified by the county government to train other groups of farmers.