Mananasi Fibre: Complete pineapple waste solutions including decortication for textile production

Last updated on 22 October 2025

Background Information

In partnership with The Chequered Flag, the Kenya-based start-up Mananasi Fibre Ltd are piloting innovative decortication technology to convert pineapple biomass waste into textile-grade fibres and nutrient-rich compost.

Pineapple plantations in Kenya make use of a 3.5-year rotation period at the end of which, after the final harvest, the plants are knocked to the ground, dried and burnt to make way for the next season’s pineapple crops. This process presents numerous environmental and human health impacts as well as sub-optimal crop rotation efficiencies.

The project is being implemented on farm headquartered in Thika, Kenya, Del Monte Kenya Ltd, a leading producer of pineapple and pineapple products with a 40 square kilometre pineapple plantation on the outskirts of Nairobi. The waste material that results from farming practices at Del Monte amounts to approximately 40,000 tonnes of dried plant material per year which, when burnt, emits approximately 52,000 tonnes of CO2 along with other particulate and noxious air pollutants. Aside from the contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, these air pollutants pose serious health risks to the neighbouring communities, particularly the densely populated areas near Nairobi. Further, the burning of the biomass waste is detrimental to the next season’s crop as the heat bakes the soil thereby depleting it of vital nutrients and soil microbiota which, altogether, reduces the soil health. To restore soil nutrient levels, Del Monte applies a chemical fertiliser which can lead to further environmental impacts, increased carbon footprint of pineapple production, and increased production costs. Finally, the drying process, which is wholly reliant on sun exposure, is heavily dependent on weather conditions and can take up to six months. This heavily delays planting and reduces the productivity of the plantation.

Embracing circular economy principles, the pilot project aims to address all these problems by intercepting an initial 10% of Del Monte’s available biomass waste – approximately 2,900 tonnes of fresh waste per month – to produce textile-grade fibres and compost which can be sold and used for pineapple production processes.

Using a number of new technologies, as well as existing technologies for novel processes, the project aims to produce 400kg of textile-grade pineapple fibre per day. The reject material from the decortication process, including the pineapple plant stem, decorticator waste and short leaves, also present an opportunity as this waste can be utilised for further fibre extraction, compost, animal feed, and biochar. Through a joint venture with the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the project is trialing the production of biochar from the reject material. This will be used for various purposes, including the filtration of decorticator wastewater to enable its re-use and the incorporation of biochar into compost to enhance its nutritional yield. The project team aims to produce approximately 4.8 tonnes of biochar per day. Trials for both the wastewater filtration, to enable the re-use of water used for rinsing the decorticators, and compost-biochar mixture for pineapple production are currently underway. Successfully repurposing this waste is crucial to the project’s ambition of providing a complete waste management solution for pineapple producers. Decortication of pineapple fibre is a relatively new technology in Kenya and success in this pilot will serve as a base to test other organic waste streams where it may be applicable.

Through this pilot, the project aims to offer a long-term and sustainable solution to address the challenges associated with pineapple farming, thereby lowering production costs, reducing environmental and human health impacts, and increasing economic circularity.

Photo credit: The Chequered Flag

Updates

The project has successfully shown a business case for creating value out of waste from pineapple plants by producing textile grade fibres from pineapple plant leaves. Del Monte has formalised its commitment to continue with the project, taking full ownership of scaling the project.

Business Development:

The project continues to explore markets in Bangladesh, China, Japan and Vietnam. Fibre consignments were successfully shipped to Vietnam, and China.
The project continues exploring degumming to reduce manganese and nickel to level that meet textile standards like Oeko Tex 100 standards for garments. Meeting such standards increases market prospects.
There has been interest in the technology applied in the project – decortication and mobile harvester – once it has been commercialised. These include TexFad (Uganda), who are using banana waste to produce fibre; Ananas Anam (Phillipines) who produce alternative leather products using pineapple fibre; and Compagnie Frutiere a large fruit and vegetable distributor in Europe.

Technology developments:

The project now has 4 decortication machines in place. Improvements to optimise the performance of the machines, are continuosly made
An auto-brushing machine has been designed to improve the quality of fibre to a standard that meets the market requirements.
The application of the pineapple leaf decortication technology was successfully tested with pineapple stems and banana stems. The fibres produced from the stem have application potential similar to coconut coir. Initial conversations with Coco360 (The FRESHPPACT Project, funded by SMEP) have been undertaken to investigate the use of these fibres in the production of mulch.

Operations:

To date more than 2,000 tonnes of pineapple waste was diverted from the Del Monte pineapple fields, and over 50 tonnes of pineapple fibre has been produced.
The project is working on expanding its product offering to include silage produced from the pulp generated during the pineapple leaf decortication. Trials are currently ongoing with goats and dairy cows. Laboratory analyses of the silage have also been conducted to understand the nutritional value of the silage.
The project partnered with Flipflopi (a SMEP grantee, making furniture and dhows from recycled plastic) to trial the use of twine made with pineapple fibre in making recycled plastic-based furniture. In addition, pineapple fibre rope was used to investigate the suitability for rigging Dhows in Lamu.
The project site has incorporated the use of renewable energy through the installation of solar; as well as the installation of a rainwater harvesting system.

Biochar trials

The use of pineapple stems to produce biochar was trialled over a 6-month period. The results show that the production of biochar from pineapple stems is technically viable, however it is not financially viable. As a result, the biochar trials are discontinued. Knowledge outputs on the trial will be published during the course of the next few months. The knowledge products include an integrated business model, a life cycle assessment, a carbon credit road map, a soil nutrient enhancement analysis, and a social impact assessment.
The project has successfully trialled the use of biochar in wastewater treatment allowing for reuse and improving the quality of wastewater released in the environment.

GESI

The project partnered with 3 local smallholder banana farmers, where the farmers received biochar-enriched compost in exchange for their pineapple waste.
The project has created employment for +85 people, of whom 50% are women. The project actively recruits women in all levels and positions in the company, both skilled and unskilled, and certainly doesn’t hold on to the perception that certain jobs are unsuitable for women.
Extensive occupational health and safety training is provided to project staff. In addition, various onsite measures are in place to ensure staff safety, including provision of protective clothing, warning signs, routine inspection and maintenance of machinery; provision of clean water in the fields.
Medical assessments were conducted to ensure that all employees do not have any health issues which may be exacerbated by the roles that they fulfil e.g. an asthmatic in a dusty environment.
The project provides facilities that cater for staff wellbeing including a canteen where subsidised lunch and tea is provided, clean ablution facilities, and transport to ensure safe commute to and from the project site.
The project has put in place a weaving workshop which creates employment for women and disabled persons. The workshop makes use of the pineapple fibre to produce crafts-like baskets and mats. The project has partnered with TexFad (a partner on the Banatex-EA project funded by SMEP in Uganda), to provide training at the workshop.
The project is committed to supporting local business by making use of local vendors.

GHG Emissions Reduction

Between 2023 and 2024, the project reached 46 tCO2e reduction and is on track to achieve a reduction of 335-339 tCO2e between 2024 and 2025.

Knowledge outputs

A case study report has been published providing the results of the gender and social inclusion assessments and lifecycle assessment.
The project team have developed an Interactive Business Model based on the Mananasi Fibre pilot project. The model compliments the Mananasi Case Study Report which focuses on the development of the business model and provides an overview of pilot activities that have been undertaken by Mananasi Fibre at the Del Monte Pineapple Estate in Thika, Kenya, commencing in July 2023. The model is in the form of an interactive Excel tool and is intended for use by external parties for commercial viability analysis, model testing as well as assessing the potential for scaling. This tool allows for context-specific assumptions, such as energy costs, labour costs, volumes, scale, and pricing, which have been developed based on farm visits and data collection.