EvokeAG turns 30 million tonnes of wasted bananas into Backlight, a microbial growth enhancer worth over £30,000 per tonne of pulp. It speeds up fermentation, cuts water use, and needs no new equipment. One business solves banana waste and makes biotech more profitable.
Everyone loves bananas. There's 120 million tonnes of bananas grown globally each year. Unfortunately, around 30 million tonnes ends up in landfill, where it rots and gives off the equivalent of 400 million tonnes of CO2. There's a social problem as well, because banana farmers aren't paid for their rejected crops. Now, we aim to turn this waste into a massive global opportunity. And the way we do this is we convert the pulp of waste bananas into Backlight, which is a microbial growth enhancer. Now, this is a hugely profitable process. Each ton of waste bananas can make over £30,000 of our product. Now, our product acts like steroids for microbes. So you'll see we're able to grow bacteria and yeast quicker, we can grow more of them, and they grow better. And this results in increased yields and shorter process times. So huge industries rely on microbes, and we can supercharge them. This saves feedstock, it saves water, and it saves these industries time. This increases profitability but also sustainability too, and it allows these companies to increase the output of their plants without CapEx spend on equipment.
