In the hills of Kinale near the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, George Kiarie is shivering despite the heat.
He is cold from loading crates of vegetables ripe broccoli and cauliflower into a refrigerated van used by his cooperative.
The vehicle has been a revelation for the 179 farmers of the Lari Horticultural Cooperative Society. Before its arrival courtesy of a project led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) they routinely lost up to 40 per cent of their crops post-harvest, with produce often wilting enroute to wholesalers.
The van is part of what experts call a cold chain a network of temperature-controlled vehicles and buildings that can keep fresh everything from vegetables to vaccines. In Kinale, this infrastructure has helped farmers incomes jump 50 per cent.
The cooperative has greatly benefited from cold-chain technology, said Kiarie. Farmers can maintain the quality and freshness of their crops for longer periods, enhancing marketability and minimizing post-harvest losses.
The project in Kinale is part of a larger UNEP effort to support the rollout of cold chain infrastructure across rural Africa. A lack of the equipment often causes perishable goods to spoil, leading to food shortfalls and economic losses, while also exacerbating climate change. Cold chains are a win for farmers and a win for the environment, says Hongpeng Lei, Chief of UNEPs Climate Mitigation Branch. The key is scaling up these networks and scaling them up quickly.
An estimated 13 per cent of food produced the equivalent of 1.25 billion tonnes annually - is lost between harvest and retail.
The consequences of this are wide ranging. The losses exacerbate hunger, which affects 673 million people globally. They reduce the income of 470 million small-scale farmers by an average of 15 per cent. Also, up to 10 per cent of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions come from produce decaying on farms and the transport of produce that will never reach consumers.
According to a report from UNEP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, developing countries could save 144 million tonnes of food annually if they reached the same level of cold chain infrastructure as developed countries. Bolstering cold chains could be a game changer for farming communities across the developing world and lift millions out of poverty, says UNEPs Lei.
A model project
While food loss is rampant around the world, the situation is especially worrying in Kenya, say experts. According to the World Resources Institute, the East African nation loses up to 40 per cent of the food it produces before it reaches consumers.
To counter those losses UNEP and a group of academic partners led by the University of Birmingham launched theAfrica Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES). Funded by the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, its goal is to build cold chain infrastructure across Africa.
In Kenya, experts trained over 300 farmers in cold chain operations, including logistics, pricing strategies and the post-harvest management of crops. Then, the project provided those in Kinale with a cold room, an insulated vehicle and the refrigerated truck, allowing them to trial the technology before purchase.
Farmers have used the equipment to store and haul a range of produce, including broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, spinach, cabbages, courgettes, leeks, kale and potatoes. The infrastructure has helped farmers achieve greater economies of scale and limit food losses to a few per cent, say those involved.
We were selling our produce through middlemen but since the project started we are able to sell some of our produce directly to the consumer and at a better price, said Pauline Waweru, a farmer and treasurer of the cooperative. Our goal is to reach a stage where the project will be adding so much value to our produce that we are able to export it.
According to Kiarie, there have been many secondary benefits, including the creation of jobs for local youth.
UNEP and the programmes other backers are now hoping to expand ACES beyond Kenya and Rwanda, where it is also active, to other African countries.
By spreading such approaches, we can support tens of thousands of farmers, reduce food losses, slow greenhouse gas emissions and protect vital natural resources delivering benefits for both people and planet, says Lei.
About the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste
The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, jointly celebrated by UNEP and the Food and Agriculture Organization, will be observed on 29 September 2025. It will feature calls to ramp up efforts to reduce food loss and waste, which is considered a critical step toward making the planets food systems more sustainable.
About the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chains (ACES)
Backed by the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chains (ACES) drives climate-friendly cooling and cold-chain solutions to cut food and vaccine loss, boost farmer livelihoods and reduce environmental impact. It is a collaborative initiative led by UNEPs United for Efficiency (U4E), in partnership with the University of Birmingham, the Government of Rwanda and Rwandan academic partners. At its core, ACES develops innovative, community-based business models that share value fairly, strengthen resilience and empower smallholder farmers.
To scale impact, ACES uses a hub-and-spoke model: the central hub generates knowledge and solutions, while spokes in key regions deliver training, support and real-world demonstrations. The effort with the Lari Cooperative is the first spoke and is being implemented by the Africa Center for Technology Studies.
