East African pilot project for fruit juice production

Tanzania and Uganda are to benefit from a US$6.5 million project to increase farmer income from banana-based beverages production.The pilot project, which will benefit farmers living along the Lake Victoria Region, will add value to enhance the supply chain of bananas by directly linking farmers to the processing of higher value-added products.

Ali Mchumo, the managing director of the Common Fund for Commodities (CfC), said that the project will enhance farmers and small stakeholders' incomes. East Africa is one the world's largest producers of bananas.

Mchumo said that with co-financing from UN-Habitat and other agencies, the banana project will link farmers directly to markets and organise farmers into efficient suppliers of raw materials for banana and other fruit based processing companies. "The project was originally conceived as a coffee diversification strategy. It seeks to strengthen the participation of small-scale farmers in the banana and other fruit-based beverages market," he said.

The $6.5 million funding is part of the $18.4 million funding provided by the CfC to target poverty and increased farmers income and activities to bolster commodity development in Africa and Latin America. The Private Public Partnership (PPP) will also be assisted by the East African Development Bank (EADB), which will act as the financial intermediary for the loan components to the private sector players.

Guy Sneyers, Chief Operations Officer of CfC, said that the project also seeks to organise farmers into efficient suppliers of raw material for banana and other fruit-based processing companies. He said the project is also intended to achieve a considerable growth of the Ugandan and Tanzanian small-scale farmers' hectares under banana and other fruits. "The overall development goal of the project is to alleviate poverty of banana and coffee farmers in the Lake Victoria region through commercialisation of banana drinks in urban areas," Sneyers said.

The project would establish five collection centres and two processing plants for high quality banana and other fruit-based beverages, link with breeding facilities for improved banana varieties, and provide extension services to farmers. 400 farmers would be organized in three years and provided with training and support in mobilizing fixed and working capital. It will also demonstrate a functioning supply chain that links farmers to the consumer market in East Africa.

Business Week