I gulped the remaining chilled mango juice which actually quenched my thirst within the scorching climate.
Temperatures have been past 40 celcius.
I simply had lunch at a good friend’s restaurant and the icing on the cake was a glass of candy, chilled mango juice.
I’ve all the time had a love for mangoes.
Whereas rising up, we had two humongous mango timber simply outdoors our house they usually actually delivered the products when wanted.
You see, I lived in an property and through the mango season, these timber dropped ripe mangoes even on the heads of strangers as they walked previous them.
These have been good surprises which endeared these timber to us.
After all over time, they have been lower right down to pave manner for ‘city improvement’.
They have been quick changed by massive buildings.
MANGO GLUT
Throughout this mango season, I sometimes stroll by means of my native market and see the fruits packed in massive batches – generally containing over fifty fruits.
As a lot because the produce regarded engaging, it didn’t fetch a lot worth smart.
Mango farmers have all the time had a wrestle to make ends meet merely due to the glut through the excessive seasons.
Nonetheless, in nations like Kenya, forward-thinking leaders like the previous governor of Makueni county have established a mango processing plant so as to add worth to the produce.
Prof. Kivutha Kibwana is one distinctive Kenyan chief who all the time put the pursuits of peasant farmers forward of his personal.
And due to this, there’s some degree of success within the mango story in Makueni county.
However that’s not the case in lots of different areas the place mangoes are the money crop.
Rotting heaps of the fruit launch a alcoholic stench which is tough to disregard.
However why ought to mango farmers throw away a fruit which has the potential of giving us at the least three excessive worth merchandise?
So what are we speaking about right here?
Let’s put aside the fruit juice and pulp for a minute.
We already know the worth they create to the desk.
However what in regards to the peels, seed cowl and seed kernels?
What in regards to the rotting fruit pulp itself?
STARCH
Once you crack open a mango seed cowl, you expose the seed kernel, a white or creamish-colored core of the seed.
The mango seed kernel accommodates appreciable quantities of starch, which might be extracted.
However why is it necessary?
Nicely, a few causes.
First, starch is a carbohydrate that means that it’s meals that might be eaten.
Secondly, it’s a uncooked materials for manufacture of bioplastics.
Final however not least, it’s an excellent binder for making livestock feeds.
All these merchandise are derived from the mango seed kernel.
However to get to the kernel, we should take away the seed cowl.
So what will we do with the seed cowl?
PARTICLE BOARDS
The mango seed cowl is wealthy in fibre.
If it’s dried, pulverised into smaller measurement then blended with wooden glue.
This might be used to make particle boards utilized in furnishings making and development.
The excessive fibre worth of the seed masking is also used to make mats or rugs.
However do not forget that we’ve been speaking a few mango glut.
Throughout a glut, now we have an extra of mango pulp, peels and seeds.
We’ve already seen some doable merchandise from seeds.
What might we conjure up from mango pulp and peels – aside from juices and jams?
VEGAN LEATHER
Leather-based as we all know it’s large enterprise.
Nonetheless a number of challenges exist.
These embrace over exploitation of livestock for hides and skins and environmental impression of tanning chemical compounds particularly chromium.
Apart from, a major demographic acutely aware a few vegan way of life is rising.
Due to this, vegan leather-based is slowly gaining prominence and mango waste is a doable uncooked materials for its manufacturing.
The surplus fruit pulp might be blended with pulverised peels, then a binder added.
The combination might be unfold onto flat surfaces earlier than being handled with vegetable tanning brokers and waxed for water proofing.
After drying, the vegan leather-based might be lower into items
A number of firms like Handbagio are doing vegan leather-based manufacturing at a business scale.
IN CONCLUSION
What are we saying in a number of phrases?
Alternatives exist round us within the type of what’s plentiful.
A mango glut shouldn’t imply abandoning the fruit altogether.
It simply may want some innovation to transform the surplus into one thing of worth.
And that’s what the round economic system is all about.
