SoyaKit (Home Business in a Box)

The SoyaKit is intended primarily for home soyfoods production, such as: Soymilk, Yogurt/Dahi, Porridge, Tofu/Paneer, soy kebabs and more. However, other foods can be processed with some of the components, especially the grinder and the heat-retention cooking bag. A major objective is to financially empower women and/or youth entrepreneurs. There is no profit leakage with the SoyaKit, as all revenues stay within the local community, creating the maximum economic multiplier effect. The landed cost of the SoyaKit, in-country, is $200 or less depending on location and volumes. The SoyaKit is comprised of high-quality food-grade components.

Local soyfoods production will enable improved nutrition in rural and urban settings, including schools etc. The opportunity is compelling for end-users due to its low capital cost, ease and economy of operation, profitability for the entrepreneurs, and positive health impact.

The previous practice of home production of soymilk, in various countries in Asia and Africa, has usually been limited to very small output (under 2 L/hr), primarily for in-home consumption. This practice involved laborious manual stone-grinding and other production and quality challenges (continual stirring over open fire, burn-on etc).

The SoyaKit enables production of 7 L / hr of soymilk or yoghurt, 1.2 kg / hr of tofu and about 14L / hr of soy porridge (for porridge, using 100% of the soybean plus a local starch component such as maize or sorghum flour or meal). It does not require electricity, and uses a heat-retention cooking bag to reduce fuel cost, smoke etc. by more than 50%. Profit potential of $2.00 per hour of production is based on typical, which actual input costs (as verified in several African countries) and highly competitive pricing of the home-made products that is realistic for low-income environments - far below the cost of animal milk products or eggs and meat.

The SoyaKit was designed and developed by Malnutrition Matters (www.malnutrition.org). It was the culmination of a decade of research and trials, in order to make a low-cost, labour-efficient, fuel-efficient nano-system that could produce high-quality soy foods. The focus is also to recruit and empower women entrepreneurs to provide maximum benefit to families and the community. The intention is for these soy foods to be made available in low-income communities (that typically have high rates of chronic moderate malnutrition) at prices that are affordable for the Base-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) consumers. The prices (which include a healthy profit for the woman or youth entrepreneur) are as low as 1 cent / gram of protein or 4 cents for 125 ml of soymilk containing 4 grams of protein.

The current (Aug 2020) status of the SoyaKit deployments includes projects in 4 countries (Ghana, Malawi, DR Congo and Kenya) with a case study of the Malawi deployment (230 SoyaKits) available on the www.malnutrition.org website.

Malnutrition Matters has also designed and developed several other award-winning appropriate technologies including the VitaGoat, SoyCow and SolarFlex food dryer.

Publicly available: Yes
Countries where available: worldwide
Price range: 100-200 USD
Offered or can be licensed for local manufacture: Yes

Dimensions: The SoyaKit is provided in a large plastic bin approx. 70 cm W, 45 cm H, 35 cm D
Weight: 8 kg

Documentation, article, or review
soya-kit-overview-08-19.pdf