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00:00 Once harvested, the days are numbered for these watermelons and avocados.
00:05 In the sweltering tropical heat of this Nairobi market,
00:08 bins of spoiled food go hand in hand with the mounds of fresh melons.
00:13 The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization says
00:16 between 30 and 40 percent of horticultural produce in sub-Saharan Africa
00:20 spoils before it even gets to market.
00:23 The major causes of post-harvest loss is how the produce is managed
00:32 immediately after harvest.
00:34 Cold storage units like this one can help mitigate losses by keeping perishables cool,
00:41 which also lowers the chance that farmers be exploited by brokers.
00:45 Brokers say that they're coming to harvest but they delay, spoiling our oranges.
00:52 Founded four years ago, a company called Soko Fresh,
00:55 which means Market Fresh in Swahili, has capitalized on this need for cold storage.
01:00 It sells space in solar-powered mobile units.
01:03 Serving some 12,000 farmers, it also buys perishables for larger distributors.
01:08 With a spotty electrical grid in many remote farming regions,
01:12 the fact that the cold storage units are solar-powered is both cost-effective and reliable.
01:19 Solar energy is one of the free sources of energy that could reduce our operational costs.
01:24 So we opted to use solar, which enables us to deploy anywhere.
01:28 Kenya derives 93 percent of its electricity from renewables, like solar energy.
01:33 Using the blazing sun to its advantage,
01:36 the company, which was set up in partnership with multiple NGOs and the World Food Programme,
01:42 has now expanded to help fish farmers keep their catch nice and cold.
01:47 So...