Vital Products keeps food fresh longer – Solar makes the supply chain more resilient

EWIA’s current bond portfolio spans various industries and regions, allowing us to achieve strong diversification for our investors while reducing costs and emissions for our clients. Today we’d like to introduce Vital Corporation, for which EWIA is constructing two solar power plants for refrigerated containers. These refrigerated containers are designed to help improve the storage of fresh food at farmers’ markets—a huge benefit for vendors, consumers, and regional value chains.

You currently have the opportunity to invest in the EWIA Impact Portfolio* 1, a bond that bundles five of our projects with different clients. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Vital, an agricultural technology and logistics company based in Accra.

The Problem of Crop Losses

Anyone familiar with African markets knows how colorful and diverse they are. However, every producer and consumer there also knows that these products must be consumed quickly due to the climate.

Crop losses and food spoilage are a major problem in Ghana and West Africa. More than 40% of the fruits and vegetables harvested for domestic consumption spoil due to a lack of refrigeration facilities and inadequate infrastructure. This includes a lack of access to the power grid as well as poor road infrastructure connecting farms to the various markets that supply consumers.

At the macroeconomic level, the situation is further complicated by the fact that farmers are scaling back production as they must balance costs, perishability, and declining profits. They face post-harvest losses that wipe out expected profits, as well as the whims of middlemen who take advantage of their vulnerability due to a lack of cold storage facilities. This, in turn, drives up prices, makes the country dependent on imports to meet its food needs, and has a host of other consequences.

Solar-powered cold storage facilities enable 14 days of storage

Vital Products therefore offers smallholder farmers, wholesalers, and market vendors solar-powered cold storage facilities to extend the shelf life of fresh produce, reduce waste, and improve food security. Essentially, it’s “Cool Storage as a Service” (CAAS).

Inspired by the experiences of Franz R. Exumé, who had previously traveled to 20 African and Caribbean countries, Vital Products and Service was founded in Ghana in 2022. Its motto is “Finding Solutions for Africa. In Africa.”

By offering refrigeration solutions powered by renewable energy, Vital helps local supply chain stakeholders store and preserve perishable food efficiently without relying on Ghana’s unstable power grid. Solar-powered modular refrigeration units, strategically placed along agricultural supply chains, extend the shelf life of products from 3 days to over 14 days, thereby reducing post-harvest losses by more than half.

The units are expandable, can be monitored digitally and monetized, with cooling conditions adjusted to meet the requirements of the specific products being stored. Fruits and vegetables can be stored in stackable crates for a short period of time, with fees calculated based on actual usage.

This service reduces post-harvest losses, increases revenue for farms and stakeholders, lowers costs, boosts profitability, and improves quality for consumers.

Impact by the Numbers

EWIA is equipping two containers from Vital Products with solar systems totaling approximately 26 kWp of module capacity (15 kWp + 11 kWp) and 50 kWh of battery capacity (30 kWh + 20 kWh).

This means they won't be putting out any emissions in the future: 15 tons of CO₂ per year, or 375 tons of CO₂ over a 25-year period, will be saved this way.

What does that mean in concrete terms?

• Trees: To naturally sequester 15 tons of CO₂ per year, you would need a forest of approximately 1,200 mature beech trees.

• Air travel: This is roughly equivalent to 6.5 round-trip flights per year from Frankfurt to Accra (economy class).

• Car trips: You would have to drive approximately 75,000 kilometers less per year in a conventional diesel car (that’s almost two trips around the world per year).

• Smartphones: Avoiding these 15 tons is equivalent to the emissions from around 1.8 million smartphone charges using the conventional power grid.

	annually (15 t CO₂)	Total duration (375 t CO₂ / 25 years)
Forest equivalent	1.200 trees	30.000 trees
saved diesel	~5.660 liter	~141.500 liter
car distance	75.000 km	1,85 million km
smartphone charges	~1,8 Mio.	~45,6 Mio

social impact

This model promotes sustainable development and economic empowerment (SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth) and gender equality (SDG 5). At the same time, it contributes to national goals for food security (SDG 2: Zero Hunger), poverty reduction (SDG 1: No Poverty), and climate resilience (SDG 13: Climate Action).

We are pleased to be able to support a local provider that finds smart solutions to local problems. Many customers—and the environment—can benefit from Vital Products.