Market Landscape for Improved Cookstoves in Mozambique

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Introduction

In Mozambique, less than 5% of the population have access to clean cooking fuels and technologies in 2019. Thus, there is an enormous opportunity for clean cooking solutions in Mozambique. The impacts of traditional biomass for cooking are not limited to health problems, deforestation, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but also the inefficient cookstoves keeps the person cooking (usually women) from performing other activities, such as working or studying, due to long cooking periods and the time needed to collect firewood or purchase charcoal. Additionally, a more efficient cookstoves reduces the fuel amount needed to cook a meal, thus reducing fuel costs.

The Mozambican cookstove market is currently at a nascent stage and is driven by donor initiatives who are supporting the private sector with grants, RBF and other funding mechanisms to create a cookstoves market.This article outlines the cookstove market in Mozambique i.e. actors involved, potential market size as well as challenges and opportunities for the private sector. This market assessment is targeted at private sector, donor organisations and other key stakeholders who are interested/active in the ICS market and want to get a deeper understanding of the market.

In this article, the term improved cookstoves (ICS) includes efficient cookstoves that burn solid biomass such as firewood, charcoal, agricultural residues, animal dung and other solid biomass products. Advanced or high tier cookstoves (ACS) are fuelled by LPG, biogas, solar energy or electricity and are mentioned in some sections of this article. ACS are not included in the term ICS, however they are included in the terms clean cooking solutions and clean cooking technologies.

For an overview on the demographics and socio-economic indicators for Mozambique, see this chapter.

For detail information about the biomass potential in Mozambique, please see this chapter.

For a detailed overview of clean cooking technologies see this article.

Stakeholder Landscape

Development organisations and NGOs

The ICS market is mostly driven by development organisation initiatives. One of the most active energy programmes is EnDev, which works towards ICS market development by capacitating local ICS entrepreneurs and providing Results-based Financing (RBF). It also organises regular meetings to promote networking among the stakeholders which compensates for the lack of an ICS association. Several local and international NGOs such as SNV, AVSI, ADEL-Sofala, Livaningo and Kulima among others have also implemented clean cooking programmes in Mozambique[1]. The Energy and Sustainable Development Forum of Mozambique (FEDESMO) is another association that has been actively promoting improved charcoal cookstoves.

Some of the key energy access programmes and their goals related to ICS are:

• EnDev, provided over 933,000 people with modern clean cooking energy until end of 2021. It is also strengthening the ICS market by supporting the Biomass and Energy Certification and Test Center (BECT) in developing quality standards and testing of ICS; supporting the production and commercialisation of different types of stoves such as artisanal, semi-industrail and industrial stoves; and also supporting awareness raising activities.

• BRILHO, planning to distribute a total of 150,000 cook stoves
• ILUMINA, planning to distribute a total of 16,000 cook stoves
• TSE4ALLM, producing biogas from organic waste.

To know more about all on-going clean cooking programmes, click here

Other programmes supporting clean cooking solutions:

Modern Cooking Facility for Africa, Funding mechanism: RBF and catalytic grants

• Duration: 2022 to 2027
• Current Funding Round: Open until 21 June
• Facility for market development funded by SIDA and managed by NEFCO. The facility supports high tier clean cooking solutions (modern fuel stoves).

Programmes pending of approval:

Domestic Cooking Stoves substitution programme in Mozambique (PoA)

Testing Centre

The Biomass Energy Certification and Testing Centre (BECT) is the only testing facility which provides testing and certification of ICS in Mozambique. It is located at the Eduardo Mondlane University.

Private Sector

Up until March 2020, there were 10-15 companies supplying ICS stoves (charcoal and fuelwood) in the Mozambique market compared to over 4 ICS suppliers in 2018. Companies such as MozCarbon and Sogepal has been active since 2010/11 while companies like Carbonsink, Pamoja Moçambique and BURN recently entered market in 2014, 2018 and 2020 respectively.There are other supplies in the market such as ENI,  ICEMA LDA, KULIMA etc. For the ICS value chain, two-step distribution chain i.e. producers to consumers is most common but many companies are also expanding the distribution chain to reach rural consumers outside the capital city, Maputo. Some ICS companies also collaborate with solar companies to provide ICS in combination with a solar product. In terms of cookstoves model, the existing companies offer both locally produced artisanal stoves as well as imported stoves (from neighbouring countries like Kenya and Botswana). The available stoves use both charcoal and firewood. BURN is the only companies piloting Electric Pressure Cookers and Pamoja offers hybrid cookstoves coupled with solar panels (see table below).

The ICS companies mostly receive fundings such as grants, Results-based Financing (RBF) and carbon financing which are then passed to the end-users as subsidised stoves to make the stoves more affordable.

List of ICS companies active in the Mozambican Market

Company	Stove models	Stoves sold so far (03.2022)	Future targets	End-user financing	Region of Operation
Carbonsink	Mbaula B (Portable charcoal stove) CH-2200 Envirofit (Portable charcoal stove) Mbaula Poupa+++ (charcoal) Poupa-lenha (Portable firewood stove) Rocket Works’ Zama Zama (firewood stove)	80,000	200,000 stoves by 2027	Pay-as-you-go. Payment in 2 instalments. Free of charge supported by the project Stove cost subsidized via grants, RBF and carbon financing	Delgado and Maputo province
Mozambique Carbon Initiatives LDA	Mbaula Poupa+ (charcoal) Envirofit Econochar (charcoal) Envirofit Econofire (charcoal) Envirofit CH2200 (charcoal) Rocket Works Chazama (charcoal)	86,152	72,000 stoves per year	Payment in 3 monthly installments. Stove cost subsidized via grants, RBF and carbon financing. Carbon financing allows the affordability of stoves and clients benefit from low price by transferring their carbon rights to the company	Maputo, Gaza, Inhambane and Sofala
Pamoja	Smart stove package consisting of 10W solar panel, a LED lamp and a wall charger. The cookstove uses cashew shells as fuel	1200	1000-2000 stoves per year	Cash payment or 18 months installment payment. The customers pay a 10% down payment and have a micro loan spread across 18 months to pay back the remaining cost of the stove.	Nampula
Sogepal	Aluminium charcoal cookstoves	45,000	144,000 stoves by 2024	Stoves subsidised by grants and RBF	Southern Mozambique
BURN	Kuniokoa Electric Pressure Cooker (Ecoa) Jikokoa	7000	250.000 households by 2024	B2B and B2C model 3-18 months installment payments (depending on the stove model)	Entire country

Other companies such as Green 66 Innovations aims at distributing at least 100,000 ethanol stoves by 2025 in Maputo and Matola and 50,000 bioethanol cookstoves by 2027. The stoves are manufactured in South Africa. Italian Energy company Eni, has produced 8,448 ICS and sold 6,198 from 2016 to 2020 in Mozambique.  These stoves are manufactured in Mozambique.

Supporting Polices and Strategies for ICS

Mozambique still lacks clear policies and targets for the ICS sector. Even though there is current development of cooking standards for charcoal and gas, there are yet no set national ICS standards.

Some supporting strategies for the ICS sector are mentioned below:

Biomass Energy Strategy BEST (2013): BEST was developed jointly by the Government of Mozambique and the European Union Energy Initiative Partnership Dialogue Facility to establish measures for sustainable biomass energy supply in a domestic, institutional and industrial level. This strategy includes actions such as upfront regulatory changes, creating an institutional organisation, capacity building for sustainable wood resource management, the improvement of the charcoal value chain, monitoring charcoal flows, promoting the use of ICS, and promoting modern biomass-based cooking fuels and other modern fuels. However, the strategy is currently not being implemented.

Strategy for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biomass Energy – ECUSEB (2014-2025) (Estratégia de Conservação e Uso Sustentável da Energia da Biomassa): It is one of the instruments for the materialisation of the Development Policy for New and Renewable Energy and is approved by Resolution No. 62/2009 (Política de Desenvolvimento de Energias Novas e Renováveis aprovada pela Resolução n.º 62/2009), of October 14. Its objective is to promote the sustainable production and use of woody biomass energy through the adoption of alternative sources of energy to ensure energy access in the domestic and industrial sectors.

• Gradually formalise charcoal sector by introducing private sector as a vehicle for change
• Shift from the use of firewood and woody resources to alternative sources of energy
• Technology transfer and ICS promotion
• Forest management practices

Funding support for ICS companies: Many development programmes are shifting gear from free distribution of cookstoves to market development model where support is provided to remove the initial barrier of entry for market development. For eg, energy programmes like EnDev and BRILHO provide RBF funding where the companies receive financial support after they have proven their impact (via sales record, no of households reached etc). Another important avenue of funding is carbon financing. Some of the carbon credit companies active in Mozambique are MozCarbon, Garner, CarbonSink, and C-Quest Capital. Since 2013, EnDev has linked many ICS companies with carbon trading companies to finance the ICS. The ICS suppliers usually sell their carbon credits to carbon trading companies who then sell them on the international market. The revenue from the carbon credits is used to provide subsidised ICS to end consumers.

Ecooking in Mozambique

Ecooking in Mozambique is in a nascent stage and mostly avaible in urban and peri-urban areas in some provinces like Maputo and Manica. The rural consumers are also unware about ecooking solutions. In 2022, few international companies are looking to pilot ecooking appliances in Mozambique. For eg. BURN International is looking to pilot Electric Pressure Cookers (EPC) in selected urban and peri-urban areas of Maputo.

The major challenges for uptake of ecooking in Mozambique include:

• National grid being limited to mostly urban and peri-urban areas and is highly unstable and unreliable. Frequent power cuts are the norms in the grid connected areas.
• High upfront cost of ecooking appliances. Especially in rural areas where the cooking fuel is collected free of charge, this can pose a significant barrier for uptake.
• Low consumer awareness about ecooking especially in rural areas. Consumer awareness with regard to use and safety of ecooking appliances is key for market development
• Cultural values and preference for food cooked over fire.

On the positive side, the presence of low electricity tariffs, government's commitment to expand the national grid to achieve universal energy access by 2030 and Mozambique's proximity to other ecooking markets like South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia present an opportunity for ecooking market development in the country.

For more information, please see this publication from MECS-EnDev: Mozambique eCooking Market Assesment.

Further Information

• Energy Access Situation in Mozambique
• ICS in Mozambique: Market Size
• ICS in Mozambique: Consumer Insights
• ICS in Mozambique: Challenges and Recommendations for the Private Sector
• Webinar: Clean Cooking in Mozambique: Market Status and Opportunities for Private Sector
• Case studies from the sector
  • Carbonsink Moçambique Lda
  • KULIMA, Boane
  • KULIMA, Moamba
  • Mozambique Carbon Intiatives LDA
  • Pamoja Mocambique LDA