10/21/2025
🇪🇹 Entrepreneur Gives Arba Minch’s Forgotten Bananas Second Life .....
Abyssinian Habesha 👈
More than a decade ago, Ephrem Debebe, a graduate of Haramaya University, traveled to Arba Minch for the first time. In the green lands of West Abaya, he was struck by a familiar yet overlooked sight: massive Giant Cavendish bananas left to rot in the fields. Too large for markets and too perishable to store, they stood unused.
“That’s when the idea first came to me,” Ephrem recalls. “We realized we could give them a second life instead of letting them go to waste; we could turn them into something healthy, tasty, and convenient.”
Much of Arba Minch, in southern Ethiopia, particularly the West Abaya area, produces an abundance of bananas, including the Giant Cavendish and other large cultivars often referred to locally as wild or semi-wild varieties. However, because of their size, limited market demand, and short shelf life, many of these bananas are not utilized and go spoiled, especially where transportation and storage infrastructure are weak.
Ephrem’s realization didn’t turn into a business overnight. For years, it remained an idea in search of a path. However, in May 2024, his long dream began to crystallize when he entered the Bruh Ethiopia Entrepreneurship Competition. His idea was to produce banana chips, a crispy snack made from thinly sliced bananas that are either deep-fried or dehydrated. Out of 30,000 participants, his company, Efi-Lude, won a $5,000 grant, finally giving him the resources to bring the idea to life.
Since then, Efi-Lude produces Yummy Banana Chips, though still on a small scale. The company makes 10 to 20 kilograms a day using locally assembled slicing and frying machines, a process that’s both slow and inefficient. The work, however, isn’t easy. Says Eprem. “To get one kilogram of banana chips, we use up to five kilograms of bananas,” Ephrem told Shega. “The machines waste a lot of raw material. Sometimes one out of four bananas doesn’t fry properly.”
Despite investing around 200,000 Birr in stainless-steel equipment and an additional 400,000 Birr of his own savings for labor and other expenses, Ephrem Debebe’s banana chip production remains low and inconsistent. He says locally made machinery wastes raw materials and limits output to just 10–20 kilograms per day.
Still, customers who’ve tried the banana chips appear to love them. “Early feedback has been encouraging,” Ephrem told Shega. “People love the natural taste and crunch, and they like that it’s a healthier alternative to other fried snacks.”
Academic research bolsters his claim: Ethiopian consumers are willing to spend significantly more on snacks that clearly offer health benefits, according to research conducted in the country’s southern regions.
Banana chips naturally have a long shelf life, often lasting months without preservatives, making them convenient for long-distance travel or emergency food storage. That durability adds to their appeal in a market where refrigeration and packaging infrastructure remain limited.
Banana chips are popular in southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America, where several prominent brands have established a strong market presence. In January of this year, Beyond Snack, an India-based, plant-based banana chip brand, successfully raised $8.3 million in its Series A funding round. The global banana chips market stands at $1.5 billion in 2025 and is projected grow to $2.04 billion by 2030, driven by the popularity of fruit-based snacks.