In 2016, Covestro and ASSIST from Vietnam – as implementation partners – and KFW DEG from Germany and Covestro – as financers – developed three small sized Solar Dyers in Wan Dwin and Myittha for chili farmers groups and in Pin Ta Ya for tea farmers’ group in Myanmar.

Upon the completion of the project, Covestro Inclusive Business would like to continue to disseminate Solar Dyers technology to farmers, farmers’ cooperatives, home industries, small & medium enterprises, social enterprises, food processors & wholesalers, non-government organizations (NGOs) in Myanmar and looks for a local partner to implement.

At the same time, our Natural Farm Fresh Myanmar team visited the donated Solar Dryers in the central for Myanmar and Shan State to follow up and access outcomes of the Solar Dryers. We found that Solar Dryers are basic and essential for farmers, farmers cooperatives, home industries, small & medium enterprises, social enterprises, food processors to have better quality, clean and hygiene products.

Consequently, we closely cooperate with Covestro who has technology and technical support from Dr. Serm Janjai from Silpakorn University, Thailand to disseminate free energy dryers in Myanmar. As a result, in September, 2017, we had entered MOU with Covestro as a local partner for dissemination of the dryers.

After that, we jointly set up four Solar Dryers in Mont Htaw Gyi Village, Myittha, Mandalay Division as a demo for drying chili with the technical assistance from Silpakon University Thailand in August, 2017.

We also launched successfully Solar Dryers Introduction to farmers, farmers cooperatives, home industries, small & medium enterprises, social enterprises, food processors & wholesalers, non-government organizations (NGOs) from Mandalay, Sagaing, and Shan States in September, 2017. The event attracts several farmers, farmers’ cooperatives and home industries, small & medium enterprises, NGO’s & Social Enterprises, Department of Trade Promotion and Consumer Affairs, Kyuakse and prominent chili processors of Myanmar visited the Solar Dryers in Mont Htaw Gyi Village, Myittha, Mandalay Division.

In December, 2016, FDA Myanmar announced all most all chili powders in the market are not healthy and were not free from Aflatoxion and Dyes. Aflatoxion can lead cancerous health problem especially it develops into liver cancer. Myanmar finds lot of liver cancerous health problem in those day.

We studied and found that the Aflatoxion is the result of lack and improper Post Harvest Technology and weaknesses in Up Stream Supply Chain. Thus, we believe that if we can improve Post Harvest Technology and Up Stream Supply Chain, we can reduce the risk of Aflatoxion. Consequently we go to Up Stream Supply Chain of chili i.e. we buy fresh ripen chili from chili farmers and process and dry in Solar Dryer. After drying, at properly moisture content (8% mc), we pack the dried chili in vacuum packing or air-tight plastic bottles. At the same time, we send our dried chili change to chili to labs to find out Aflatoxion B1 level and moisture content. We have a very good result of Aflatoxion B1 and Moisture Content.

Consequently, we want to motivate chili farmers and farmers cooperatives to grow more chili and sell fresh chili to us since they can cash out earlier and have market certainty.

We believe that if all farmers and farmers cooperatives improve in their drying method (at the moment, they dry all chili in open sun dry) and all food processors improves in Up Stream Supply Change process, we can reduce the risk of bad hygiene issues and Aflatoxin

Nay Oo is a native of Yangon City formerly known as Rangoon, the capital of Myanmar (Burma). He was one of the students of Rangoon Institute of Technology in 1988. The institute initiated pro-democracy moment of Myanmar in 1988. After hard university student life, he hold the degree of electrical engineering. After his first degree, he pursued his dream to have English proficiency and attended English Diploma at University of Foreign Languages, Yangon.

Then, he worked for 3 MNCs for 20 years. In 2013, he won the gold medal conferred by Schindler Group for his consistent out-performance of Myanmar Jardine Schindler Ltd., one of the operating Companies of Schindler in Myanmar. He led Myanmar Jardine Schindler Ltd to be the preferable lift supplier and be a market leader in Myanmar.

In 2017 he turned his new leaf in his life and sets up a social enterprise named Natural Farm Fresh Myanmar Co., Ltd. to disseminate innovative solar dryers to farmers, farmers’ cooperatives, home industries, small & medium enterprises, social enterprises, food producers & wholesalers, non-government organizations (NGOs) in Myanmar.

Consequently he found an opportunity to improve quality and hygiene standards of spices especially chili, turmeric and gingers. In late 2016, the government agency announced that all chili powder used in Myanmar were not free from Aflatoxin and dyes chemicals. Aflatoxion can lead cancerous health problem and it can develop into liver cancer. He found that Myanmar have lot of liver cancerous health problem in those day. He studied and found that the Aflatoxion is the result of lack and improper Post Harvest Technology and weaknesses in Supply Chain. He believes that if the process in Post Harvest Technology and Supply Chain is improved through a basic solar drying process, the risk of Aflatoxion can be reduced.

He set up four Solar Dryers in Mont Htaw Gyi Village, Myittha, Mandalay Division as a demonstration for other farmers, farmers cooperatives for drying chili. He received the technical assistance from Silpakon University of Thailand in August and September, 2017. Consequently his company goes to Up Stream Supply Chain of Chili i.e. he buys fresh ripen chili from chili farmers and processes and dries in Solar Dryer. After drying, at properly moisture content (8% moisture content), he packs the dried chili in vacuum packing or air-tight plastic bottles. At the same time, he sends the dried chili to labs to find out Aflatoxion B1, B2, G1 and G2 level. He gets a very good result of Aflatoxion B1 from the dried chili with 0 p.p.b (Parts Per Billion) and Moisture Content of 4.7%.

He also traveled intensely throughout Myanmar and launched successfully Solar Dryers Introduction program to farmers, farmers’ cooperatives, home industries, small & medium enterprises, social enterprises, food processors & wholesalers, non-government organizations (NGOs) from Mandalay, Sagaing, Magwe Divison and Shan States. In December, 2017, he received grant from Responsible Business Fund from Denmark to increase the drying capacity from 4 Solar Dryers to 7 Solar Dryers. Moreover, he is now actively assisting farmers, farmers’ cooperatives, home industries, small & medium enterprises, social enterprises, food processors to receive the grant from Responsible Business Fund from Denmark.

Soe Paing a native of Yangon City as well. He graduated from Government Technical Institute and specialized in Mechanical Engineering. After his graduation, he joined the government service for a while.

Owing to bureaucracy, he decided to leave the government service. Then, he is a real entrepreneur working in different area such as timber trading, garble and sand extraction for construction companies, gold mining and construction. He is very eager to take part in agriculture business. Finally, Nay Oo and he joined together and formed Natural Farm Fresh Myanmar Co., Ltd.

Now both of them is promoting solar dryers and dried chili powder with the brand of U Sat Kyi (Mr. Spicy)

Hitoshi Ikeya is a highly experienced investor and a co-founder of Emerging Markets Entrepreneurs – Myanmar. He is also the Director and a founding partner of UMJ Ikeya Investment, an investment fund focused on Myanmar. Hitoshi has a background working for leading investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and HSBC Securities.

Hitoshi co-founded UMJ Ikeya Investment, in order to bring capital to high growth potential businesses in Myanmar. He is responsible for deal sourcing and structuring and through his investments holds board positions for some of Myanmar’s most successful enterprises, including Bagan Innovation Technology, GL AMMK and Century Finance. Prior to co-founding UMJ Ikeya Investment, Hitoshi was Vice President of global equity sales at Goldman Sachs where he was involved in several primary deals including three IPOs.

Hitoshi believes in the power of networks and that good partnerships can create value beyond the sum of their parts. From his experience working with high net-worth investors and given his successful track-record at UMJ Ikeya Investment, Hitoshi is able to quickly and efficiently structure deals for EME-M, including identifying co-investors. In addition, given his wide-reaching networks and experience in Myanmar, Hitoshi is excellently placed to support due diligence of EME-M’s potential investments.

Hitoshi studied economics at Cornell University. He is a Myanmar-Japanese citizen regularly travelling between the two countries in order to spur Japanese investment into the private sector in Myanmar.