Calculate Your Impact

Kunming Rongxia is a designer and manufacturer of highly efficient biomass stoves in Kunming, China. “Juhong” brand stoves, which are manufactured by Kunming Rongxia, have won several competitions for design and efficiency and burn biomass 65-85% more efficiently than other stoves on the market in China. Some have been specially designed for use in high altitude, mountainous locations. The stoves are designed to burn wood, agricultural refuse, and dried dung.

The Need

Nearly all rural households in Western China rely on wood burning stoves, coal stoves, or open fire for cooking and heating. With the rapid growth of the rural population and the increased demand for energy, fuel wood consumption has increased 12% every year for the past ten years. The continuous increase in demand for and reliance on fuel wood has increased deforestation and open fire cooking. Moreover, cooking on old poorly designed wood and coal stoves contributes to in-door air pollution, which has had negative health effects in rural populations.

E+Co Value Added

Kunming Rongxia needed capital to scale up its production capacity and expand its marketing and sales deeper into Southwest China as well as Southeast Asia. E+Co’s $100,000 investment allowed the company to scale up, diversify the sales of its products and purchase equipments to improve the productivity. In addition to the seed capital, E+Co has assisted the company in developing its growth plan to move beyond selling largely to government subsidized poverty alleviation programs to include more private, un-subsidized sales to local governments, NGOs, and retailers. Kunming Rongxia is now marketing stoves in Africa as well.