Driven by the momentum of a huge need for bananas used for cooking (matooke) in Kenya, Ugandan farmers see a potential for greater economic action in the East African region. Already, TechnoServe has organised some 26.000 farmers into Producer Business Groups for joint marketing. This has resulted in wholesalers buying nearly US$22 million of matooke. Ugandan researchers have also been working on processing technologies suited matooke. President Museveni kick-started this effort in 2005 with a Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development, seeking to commercialise matooke flour under the brand name “Tooke”. A subsequent innovation has been a process for vacuum-packing peeled bananas, washed with sodium metabisulphite to stop the ripening process. This long-lived cooking bananas, stripped of the thick peel that makes up to 40% of their weight, will be exported to Ugandans living in the US and Europe.
Culled from Spore Magazine
