ECO food dehydrators

farmers face marketing problem when cost of transport their crops to markets exceed market value thus they leave them in fields for land fertilization that harms environment and forms great loss for their income and natural resources , ECO  helps farmers to turn crops  surplus that usually go to waste into long shelf life , powdered fruit drinks and powdered tomato sauce in just hours , to be sold in high price off season, ECO also reduces crops bulk and weight by up to 20 times for cheaper transport and storage , it can form in house microenterprises in food processing  for rural women and unemployed to empower them socially and  liberate them economically, and can help families to reduce food expenses by dehydrating crops in low price harvest season to be consumed in high price off season , while preserving natural resources and protecting environment 

small holder farmers suffer of unavailability of appropriate food storage and preservation tools, they can’t access the export markets since they cannot fulfill requirements in terms of food safety and quality, they used not to harvest their crops when cost of transport to high value distant markets exceeds market value, that forms great loss for their income and natural resources  that go to produce food that no one consumes , while harming environment , FAO estimates 30% to 50% harvest loss in hungry Africa   

 The unemployment rate among young males reached 20 percent, while among females reached 36.5 percent (CAPMAS, 2017 Egypt)

 Small holder farmers can’t pay for the food needed to ensure a decent nutrition of their members

Poverty rate and gender inequality among rural populations is significantly higher than among the urban population

Food Dehydration creates shared prosperity by adding value to crops surpluses, extending food supplies, improving food security, quality and safety, empowering smallholders, and creating employment opportunities that meets social norms of rural females, however appropriate tools that can meet local conditions of small holder farmers of developing countries are totally absent, appropriate technologies for food dehydration are needed

ECO targets

1- Small holder farmers who seek appropriate food processing tools to preserve and storage fruits and vegetables surplus ,to be sold or consumed in high price off season

2- Rural women who suffer of social norms that prevent them from working outside their homes and villages and seek in house income creation opportunity to liberate them economically

3- Low income families who suffer of sudden increase in food prices due to food traders manipulation and seek to reduce food expenses

4- Families with health concerns who prefer to prepare their own need of fruit drinks, tomato sauce, at home level to avoid unhealthy chemical preservatives in processed products 

ECO provides 3 models of specifically tailored food dehydrators that can serve efficiently and economically in local conditions of small holder farmers of developing countries , ECO can serve on family, small and medium commercial scale , to help farmers turning crops surplus that usually go to waste into high value, pure , healthy , powdered fruit drinks and powdered tomato sauce in just hours, with top quality that meets international markets quality standards , it can reduce crops bulk and weight by up to 20 times thus reduce transport and storage cost by the same rate, and can extend shelf life of fruits and vegetables for several months with no need for traditional high rate of cold storage, it can form in house sustainable  income creation opportunity for rural women in food processing that meet with their social norms and helping families to bridge the gap of nutrient supply around the year, avoid food traders manipulation on food prices, and secure more nutritious food for their children by dehydrating fruits and vegetables in low price harvest season to be consumed in high price off season, thus ECO can increase farmers income and consumption  by helping them turning crops surplus into business opportunity,  reaching international competitiveness  thus increasing their ability to pay more for children schooling, and health care, it empowers rural women socially and liberates them economically by creating in house income creation opportunities in food processing to give them decision making power within their families and  communities that can help in bridging the gab of gender inequality, theory of work:- water forms up to 95% of fresh fruits and vegetables contents , thus 95% of cost of transport and storage of any both , goes to transport and storage water not exactly food, ECO can reduce moisture content of fruits and vegetables by evaporation to be less than 5 percent, ECO is not just a food dehydrator but a whole system that based on appropriate technology to pretreat , pre dehydrate , dehydrate , and storage fruits and vegetables with minimum need for conventional sources of energy, and operation costs, it’s a mix of next generation technology  and traditional preservation methods, ECO granted a patent from Egypt academy for scientific research and technology , the second one is in process, and 8 international awards from UNDP, Austria, UK, Nigeria, EU, , Brussels , Egypt             

ECO based on next generation technology, its first ever that specifically tailored to serve efficiently and economically in local conditions of small holder farmers of developing countries, it’s unique as it’s not just a food dehydrator but a whole system for fruits and vegetables preservation and storage, it can serve with minimum dependency on conventional sources of energy, it provided with new technical advantages that are not available, and can solve many of disadvantages in comparable most advanced US food dehydrators ,ECO is a mix of modified traditional methods for food preservation, and next generation technology of food dehydration ,if we consider tomato as an example and unlike traditional sun dried tomato, dehydrated tomato by ECO is of top quality that meets international markets quality standards, it does not need for costly cold storage, its ready to sell produce with no need for additional processing steps, its 100% pure that reduces transportation, storage and shipping costs by up to 50% comparing with traditional sun drying method(50% tomato and 50% salt and water), worth mentioning that NO food dehydrators industry exist in Egypt and all over Arab countries as ECO is the only provider in this huge potential markets, on Africa scale only one south African provider (dryers for Africa), on global scale only about 15 provider ECO is the 16th , and only 4 countries provide comparable products (US , Korea, China and Italy) , Egypt ECO is the 5th

water forms 90% of crops content that encourages bacteria and fungus growth, while increasing bulk and weight , reducing crops moisture content by dehydration extends their shelf life , reduces their weight and volume, thus transport cost by up to 20 times ,ECO reduces moisture content of sliced vegetables and fruits to turn them into light weight /low volume chips, in just hours, to be processed into powdered fruit drinks and powdered tomato sauce

ECO based on evaporating water from fruits and vegetables, based on using both of solar and electric power, it provided with energy saver unit, a solar powered unit for fruits and vegetables pretreatment, a solar powered unit for fruits and vegetables pre dehydration, and a natural preservation unit

By providing ECO to rural farmers, rural women, unemployed and families it can contribute to:-

- increase farmers income and food security by reducing post-harvest loss, and helping them to extend self-life, add value to their crops, increase their income and efficiency of farm inputs, turning crops waste into business opportunity, and top quality, low volume and weight dehydrated produce that enable them to reduce transport and storage cost thus access high value distant local and international markets

-empower rural women and unemployed socially and liberate them economically by creating in house income creation opportunities in food processing that meet with their social norms

-help families to secure nutritious food for their children by enabling them to dehydrate fruits and vegetables in low price harvest season to be consumed n high price off season

-contribute to environmental health by reducing greenhouse emission from waste crops

-conserve natural resources that go to produce food that no one consumes by reducing crops waste and loss  

ECO forms the shortest and fastest way to increase food security with no more stress on existing limited natural resources (do you know that 1/3 of all global soils are already degraded (FAO), and soon worlds farmers will be asked to produce more and more food from less and less land and natural resources to feed worlds growing population, do you know that African countries forms a net of food importers despite they produce more than enough food to feed its population mainly because of post-harvest loss 

hereunder number are based on existing limited financial resources, however numbers can be too much increased based on availability of financial resources 

ECO is a new start up 10---1000---7000

ECO target to establish a sister company for food dehydration  to dehydrate fruits and vegetables of  farmers who can’t afford the upfront cost of its products, and in urgent need to dehydrate their crops after harvest before rot can be occurred , for a fee, via its business partners inside their communities, ECO is to keep 25% of dehydration fee in a special account for each customer, when customers account achieves 50% of the price of ECO product , the customer is to be notified to pay the rest of the price to receive a food dehydrator, if he may be not , its account is to be closed , and he has to open another account , -the sister company also will enable ECO to accept % of its products price (profit margin ) in form of in kind payment (frites and vegetables) to be dehydrated and sold via its sister company with additional profit margin  

ECO believes that such paying methods can reduce the burden of upfront cost, and can make it hard for potential customers to switc

ECO receives so many orders to export its products to many of African and Arab countries, it strives to collaborate with overseas business partners in such countries to extend its activities to these huge markets, where food dehydrators industry is not exist and huge potential need, thus increase its sales volume, profits and number of customers, it received some offers from potential business partners, however it seeks financial support ,

1-Potential competition from new competitors: - despite and till now ECO didn’t recognize any direct competition on national and Arab countries market sit expects competition risk in the next few years

2- quality: - ECO faces quality problem due to outsourcing its products

3- Partnering with appropriate foreign business partners to access global markets 

ECO has a ready development program that includes many of very attractive models of food dehydrators, to be faster ,cheaper, and better than any of potential competition, because of no competition in the in Egyptian markets at the moment ECO will not provide its best models in the first phase of implementation, ECO will follow innovative paying models that makes it hard for its customers to switch, ECO customer service team has unique  deep experience in food dehydration / dehydrators (up to 20 years) that enables it to offer exceptional  customer service that new entrant  in market cant offer ,ECO searches actively about business partners (investors) to achieve mass production thus reducing manufacturing costs to achieve cost leadership ,and to help ECO to quickly  penetrate new markets

ECO will outsource its products thus it expects some issue with quality, so it  committed to adopt strict quality control program  in its main center

we are not a part of larger organization

Ahmed :-Team leader , CEO ,and technician member, BSc of agriculture, 2 patents owner, 20 years’ experience in food dehydration he attended up to 15 program in entrepreneurship and granted a diploma from EU ,responsible about designing, patenting, manufacturing, and examining ECO products,  customer service, sales and marketing

-Tarek:- BSc of arts, 8years experience in sales and marketing , CEO assistance, product finishing

-Abeer:- founder 8 years’ experience in examining dehydrated fruits and vegetables ,

-shaimaa :- BSC of commerce , 4 years’ experience in sales and marketing (Carrefour  hypermarkets----)

-Samar:- Founder BSC of arts :- sales and marketing 

ECO team leader has 20 years’ experience in food dehydration , it passed 15 entrepreneurship training program and granted a diploma in entrepreneurship from EU UNIDO Switch Med program

ECO is the 2th winner (before Spain and after France) of UNDP/IDEASS/EBN international award on human development innovations, it honored in the Royal academy of sciences Brussels, and published in European business network     http://www.ideassonline.org/pic/doc/GreenEnergyEgypt.pdf

ECO is the winner of ENERGY GLOBE award Austria     http://www.energyglobe.info/awards/details/awdid/4765/  

ECO shortlisted by EU/UNIDO experts as one of best 2 Egyptian projects to attend Switch Med incubation program  it also shortlisted to represent Egypt in Switch Med connect innovation faire Spain, the program also sent a Spanish filming team to film ECO products to be showcased in Spain , where industry does not exist, ECO team leader granted a diploma in Entrepreneurship from the program(8 months, 5 session) http://www.switchmed.eu/en/news/news-1/our-incubated-green -entrepreneurs-are-becoming-investors-ready-companies   

ECO is the winner of Tony Entrepreneurship program Nigeria (best 2 Egyptian projects), it received invitation to visit Nigeria

ECO is the winner of the world award for sustainability Austria  https://youtu.be/qjC3TrTr5RA   

https://youtu.be/Qv-EiaQuNAs

ECO is the winner of Aid innovation challenge award Brussels

ECO is the winner of Maser el Heir innovating for a cause incubation program   (60,000 LE)

ECO granted a patent from Egypt academy for scientific research and technology

ECO granted 60,000 LE from Maser el Kheir the largest Egyptian NGO organization for 5% of profits for 2 years through its innovating for a cause program,  ECO granted 5000 $ from Tony Elumelue Nigerian entrepreneurship program, and received 2000 Euro from EU UNIDO Switch Med regional program as financial support , it received offer for partnership(technical and financial , marketing collaboration ) from TIBA Academy Egypt few days ago

Customers segments

Small holder farmers

-rural women and unemployed

- Low income Families

-high class families

Customer Relationships

Creating CRM, active social media presence, providing unique value, and quality products

Channels :-Business partners inside rural communities , website, phone calls, social media, retailers,  direct marketing from our centers, and fairs

Value Proposition

 Economic value increase farmers income/food security, social value Empowering rural women socially and liberate them economically - helping families to reduce food expenses, Environmental value:--reducing gases emission from waste crops, conserving natural resources 

Key Activities:- design ,manufacturing, marketing , selling and maintaining 4 models of food dehydrators -purchasing and sending manufacturing  materials to outsourcing partners

-adopting strict quality control program

Key Resources:-Physical  Center , Tools for quality control, office supplies, internet, transportation truck  Human Outsourcing  and business partners, net of distributors, Intellectual: - We granted a patent and have ready development program

Key partners Outsourcing partners for manufacturing ECO components, suppliers for supplying metal sheets , electric, electronic components, and accessories, business partners from inside rural communities for selling and advertising, hyper markets , souvenir shops—to sell our products

Cost Structure:-

-Cost of product development 80%

- Cost of assets 10%

-cost of R/D  10% ECO committed to spend 10% of capital investment on implementing  improved  technological innovation in design  in order to stay competitive , for future competitiveness, and ability to achieve long term profits , it  also committed to reduce  labor and operation costs  by adopting outsourcing

ECO will earn revenue by manufacturing, selling, and maintaining 4 food dehydrators models,(estimations )

1-Family scale in a cost of 285$ to be sold by 430$,

2-Small commercial scale in a cost of 456$ to be sold by 685$

3-Medium commercial scale in a cost of 2866$ to be sold by 4300$,

4-Large commercial scale in a cost of 4533$ to be sold by 6800$,

-ECO will switch between value based and cost plus pricing strategies

-In the second phase ECO will establish a sister company for food dehydration,

 That will enable it to accept % of product price (profit margin) as in kind payment(Crops) to be dehydrated and sold in additional profit margin ,also dehydrating rural crops for a fee

ECO provides for rural farmers a whole system for fruits and vegetables preservation and storage, to reduce upfront cost of its products, ECO will sell only the food dehydrators then customer has to order the other unites of the system gradually 

For financial and in kind support

Non

UNDP, FAO, UNIDO

ECO will use the monetary prize to achieve mass production thus reduce the cost of its products to meet with purchasing power of target segments, and to establish a sister company for food dehydration to dehydrate fruits and vegetables for rural farmers who can’t afford the upfront cost of its products  

ECO will use the monetary prize to achieve mass production thus reduce the cost of its products to meet with purchasing power of target segments, and to establish a sister company for food dehydration to dehydrate fruits and vegetables for rural farmers who can’t afford the upfront cost of its products  

ECO will use the monetary prize to achieve mass production thus reduce the cost of its products to meet with purchasing power of target segments, and to establish a sister company for food dehydration to dehydrate fruits and vegetables for rural farmers who can’t afford the upfront cost of its products  

ECO will use the monetary prize to achieve mass production thus reduce the cost of its products to meet with purchasing power of target segments, and to establish a sister company for food dehydration to dehydrate fruits and vegetables for rural farmers who can’t afford the upfront cost of its products  

ECO will use the monetary prize to achieve mass production thus reduce the cost of its products to meet with purchasing power of target segments, and to establish a sister company for food dehydration to dehydrate fruits and vegetables for rural farmers who can’t afford the upfront cost of its products  

ECO will use the monetary prize to achieve mass production thus reduce the cost of its products to meet with purchasing power of target segments, and to establish a sister company for food dehydration to dehydrate fruits and vegetables for rural farmers who can’t afford the upfront cost of its products