Ethanol Producing Plant Using Cassava, Maize Feedstock Launched In Zambia

A Chinese firm on July 24 launched an ethanol processing plant in central Zambia, which the government says will go a long way in helping the country tackle fuel problems and reduce poverty.

The $9 million plant, built by the Zhongkai International Company, will result in the creation of about 200 direct jobs while another 600,000 people are expected to benefit from the investment.

The plant will produce ethanol through agricultural products like cassava and maize. By-products like liquid fertilizer, biofuel and carbon dioxide will also be produced.

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Kenya: Biofuel From Cotton Waste

Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it must be a joke when he was told he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and efficiently using a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

"Who could believe it's possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" laughed Mathoka, crouching down to inspect the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri village in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.

"But it works," he said, walking over to a nearby tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get higher yields, especially during drought periods."

Mathoka said his earnings had doubled in the two years he has been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre cheaper than regular diesel.

Unlike most biofuels, which are derived from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making process. That means that as well as being cleaner and cheaper than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no extra land is needed to produce it.

From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has driven forest communities off their land and pushed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food shortages.

"Our biodiesel comes from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton," said Taher Zavery, managing director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based company producing the biodiesel.

"We started producing and using it to power our cotton ginning factory in 2011. With increased production, we now use it for our trucks, sell it to the United Nations to run some of their buses - and also to local farmers for irrigation."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have so far invested in biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative launched by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.

A small but growing number are shedding their burden of reliance on the weather - and investing in irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme launched more than three years ago.

Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the irrigation system - which includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs starting from 32,000 shillings (1US$=KES103; July 2019), depending on the size of the pump.

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments until the total is paid off. They buy the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at Ksh80 ($0.8) a litre.

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Kenya: Fruit Juice Maker Invests US$5 Million To Increase Capacity

Fruits juice maker Del Monte Kenya has invested Sh580 million (1US$=KES103; July 2019) in a new fresh fruit packing facility with a processing capacity of 60 tonnes of fresh fruit per year.

The new facility, which is being constructed within Del Monte Kenya’s plantation is scheduled to be completed in August 2019 to expand production of pineapples avocados, mangos and passion fruit juices.

“Del Monte Kenya plans to source fruit from local and regional growers in Murang’a and Kiambu Counties, we will prepare and package the products from the new facility for both local and international markets,” said Del Monte managing director Stergios Gkaliamoutsas.

He said the expansion drive is the company’s way of celebrating 70 years of operations in the country and is expected to create 200 new direct jobs.

Del Monte Kenya employs over 6,500 employees and creates additional 28,000 jobs indirectly through its activities. The company houses half of its workforce within the company’s premises.

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Energy Efficient Tobacco Curing Barn Introduced In Zimbabwe

...uses coal, leading to hopes that tobacco farmers will rely less on the use of firewood for tobacco curing, which has caused a massive increase in deforestation in recent years.

Whether small scale tobacco farmers will find purchased coal cheaper than 'free' firewood remains to be seen.


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Mango processing plant to open in Malindi, Kenya

A 75 million Kenya Shilling (1US$ = 84 KES) mango processing plant is set to open in February in a key cultivation region of the fruit, Malindi. The plant will crush 60 tonnes of raw mangoes every day. Another factory is also set to open in Hola, Tana Delta. With a combined capacity to process 90 tonnes of raw mangoes in a day, the new factories are expected to significantly improve farm gate prices paid to farmers.

Malindi and Tana Delta are the main producers of Ngowe mango, which is preferred for juice making.

Malindi alone produces over 70 per cent of the total production of the variety in the Coast province.

The new plant was set up by the Malindi Farmers Cooperative Society, which has been buying raw mangoes from its members for sale to the juice manufacturers. The project was funded by the Micro Enterprise Support Programme Trust (MESPT) that receives support from Danida, a Danish funding institution. The project was built from last year on a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) arrangement and MESPT will transfer it to the co-operative once the capacity to run it is established.

The pulp can be stored for a long period of time and will also reduce the cost of transport associated with selling raw mangoes, which sometimes go bad before they even secure a market. Total wastage is estimated at 40 percent of the total collections.

In Malindi, there are over 12,000 mango farmers with an estimated 120,000 trees lying on 1,700 hectares of land, according to the results of a baseline survey on the crop carried out in 2009 by Institutional Development and Management Services (IDM), a research firm.

Since mango is a seasonal crop, an addition of equipment to the machines that were imported from Italy will create capacity for the factory to process passion, pineapples and water melon, Nyale said.

The new plant has increased the Coast province processing capacity to 260 tonnes of mango everyday. In addition to the two new factories, other major processors in the region include Allfruits EPZ limited in Mikindani, which process about 100 tonnes of mango everyday for export to Europe and Milly Fruit famous for Picana brand that is able to crush about 70 tonnes of mangoes per day.


more...Business Daily Africa

Uganda: new dairy plant to reduce unprocessed milk uptake

by Ephriam Kasozi

Arrangements to start the construction of a milk factory have been finalised, a move that will reduce consumption of unprocessed milk in Uganda. Under the arrangement, dairy farmers from the cattle corridor in the western region will have their 500,000 litres of milk processed daily at the factory based in Mbarara.

Mr Akash Kumar, the managing director of the Midland Group said the $15 million processing plant that starts its operations effective January 2012 will produce various

milk products including skimmed milk powder, butter oil, liquid milk, cream, ghee and cheese.

“The building of the plant is already under way and is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter and milk power production is expected to begin in January 2012. The powder milk plant will have a capacity to turn 500,000 litres of milk every day,” said Mr Kumar adding that the company using Pearl Dairy as its brand will use its experience to deliver to the African Milk industry.

Speaking at the launch of the, Kumar the factory on a 15 acre land will see farmers organised to work in groups to increase milk production for sustainable production.

The Monitor

Rwanda government to construct coffee roasting plant

by Gertrude Majyambere

The Rwandan National Agriculture Export Development Board (NAEB) is set to establish a coffee roasting plant as part of the government’s strategy to raise farmers’ earnings and boost coffee exports by adding value to the crop.

The Rwf700million (1 US$D = 622.9243 RWF) plant will be put up through a Public Private Partnership (PPP), with Ocir-Café holding 49 per cent stake in the project while private operator, Clinton Hunter Development Initiative, will hold 51 per cent shares.

Alex Kanyankole, the Director General of NAEB said they are yet to acquire a construction permit. Real Contractors has been hired to carryout the construction, which will last between six and eight months.

“This plant is aimed at the premium end of the market and will complement other products in the coffee export chain but it will be priced higher than our green coffee beans,” Kanyankole said.

Rwanda mainly exports traditional coffee beans, which currently attracts US$6 per kilo on the international market, US$14 less than the price of roasted coffee.

The plant will have the capacity to roast 3,000 metric tones annually. Rwanda targets the Middle East, regional markets and the US for her roasted coffee exports.

This year, government targets US $60m from coffee exports, up from US $47m last year.

Currently, coffee roasters include Bourbon, Ocir Café and Nkubiri Enterprise that roast between 10 and 20 metric tonnes per year.

The New Times

Problems affecting development of Ghana's tomato processing sector

Despite a large and growing output of tomatoes in Ghana, the manufacturing industry has been unable to leverage the crop, leaving the industrial sector import-burdened to the detriment of local agricultural producers.

"Northern Star Tomato factory to close down.” This is just one of the recent headlines in the local media about the fate of the government-owned factory. The processing plant, based in Pwalugu, a small town in Ghana’s Upper East region, has in the last couple of years repeatedly proved unable to function efficiently due, shockingly, to an inadequate supply of its main raw material - tomatoes.

Northern Star has had a slightly convoluted ownership past. Formerly Pwalugu Tomato Factory, it was one of the three state-owned tomato processing plants set up in the 1960s as part of Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah’s development plan for the country. The other two processing factories set up in Pwalugu were the GIHOC Tomato Cannery (TOMCAN) in Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo region, and the GIHOC Cannery in Nsawam, a town near Accra.

After the IMF and World Bank-led Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) of the 1980s, the government was forced to sell or privatise most of its corporations.

The Pwalugu Tomato Factory somehow managed to remain under state control, which led to more years of atrophy and eventually complete closure.

However, when the tomato processing companies shut down, as part of the conditionality set by the multilaterals, the Ghanaian government abolished import quotas in 1992. This increased competition from foreign tomato processing firms. Their products were much more competitive because European foodstuffs are highly subsidised, to the tune of €250 million a year.

In 2006, the Ministry of Trade and Industry announced a policy hinged on promoting equitable regional development that envisaged at least one manufacturing plant in each Ghanaian district. As such, a small local company, Northern Star, bought the tomato plant to strengthen its partnership with Italian food processing and packaging company, Trusty Foods.

However, operations turned sour and the plant closed down again a year later, despite significant investment in equipment and machinery and land for tomato growing. In 2010, the plant reopened with a new investor but seemed beset by the same troubles it ran into previously, threatening closure for the third time.

Tomato farming is predominantly undertaken in northern Ghana, around the surrounding areas of Bolgatanga. As it was (and continues to be) one of the poorest regions in the country, in 1975 the Acheampong military government began constructing the Tono irrigation dam in the Upper East region to encourage farmers to produce food and cash crops.

According to Accra-based non-governmental organisation Third World Network in an April 2006 study, carried out in collaboration with the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), the Tono dam is one of the biggest agricultural dams in West Africa. It covers 3,600 hectares and provides 2,400 hectares of irrigated land for cultivation. The dam has greatly benefited small scale farmers in the region as it enables them to farm all year round. The tomato is a key northern crop, identified in the study as being more profitable than rice, maize and groundnuts.

Ghana seems increasingly incapable of producing canned tomato products. The finger pointing flies in many directions, but lack of farmer incentives get the most blame.

One problem, which the Tono dam was built to mitigate, is the seasonal nature of the tomato crop. Large quantities of tomatoes are produced between November and March but, once the season is over, cultivation of tomatoes is significantly scaled back, especially in areas outside the radius of the dam and other water sources. This makes the input for canneries unreliable and forces them to rely on imports to fill any gaps.

Another issue has to do with quality and lack of storage facilities. The processing factories often reject tomatoes that they feel are unsuitable for processing and, because there is no proper storage system, surplus tomatoes are left to rot. Moreover, Northern Star, for example, was infamous for having an insufficient number of tomato crates and inadequate transport to move them from the farm to the processing plant. This again discourages large-scale production.

Although the practice is on the rise in many regions of Ghana, not all tomato farmers are organised into cooperatives, and even when these exist, they lack the bargaining power to negotiate off-take contracts. Prior to most of them being privatised or shut down, the processing factories engaged some farmers to provide tomatoes at a contracted price.

However, even this caused problems in the larger cities because, according to research by ICCO, a faith-based development organisation, the presence of the factories undermined the bargaining power of the Accra women traders. Known as ‘market queens’, they also bought tomatoes directly from farmers but could only transact with those who were not tied to contracts with the factories.

Tomato farmers have a ready market in the market queens, who are willing to buy the tomatoes at a higher price than that typically offered by factory management.

Differentials between the factory-offered price and market prices can be as much as 300%. There is usually a fixed price set by the government but farmers complain that factory management sometimes renegotiate prices that fall below the set rate. Plant managers, however, defend the need to renegotiate in the event of inferior quality produce.

The ‘market queens’ are said to now bypass the local market altogether because of this and go as far as neighbouring Burkina Faso to buy tomatoes. This has also added to the woes of local farmers, especially in the northern regions.

Ghana Biz Media

Tomato production and processing project planned for South Africa

A long-heralded tomato production and processing project will make the Eastern Cape the premier production area for processed tomatoes in South Africa if it is successful.

After eight years of hard work by the promoters, Cape Concentrate’s completely new factory in the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ), north of Port Elizabeth, will receive its first truckload of tomatoes for processing in September.

The project has involved an investment of R200m so far on agricultural development and processing facilities.

The project was led by Post Harvest and Environmental Technologies (PHET, formerly PHT). Its primary financier is the Development Bank of Southern Africa, followed by Jonah Capital Group headed by Sam Jonah, a Ghanaian business magnate. Jonah holds 58% of the shares in Cape Concentrate; PHET holds 42%.

Cape Concentrate’s long term vision is to replace most of the 460,000t per year which sub-Saharan Africa imports in tomato paste from China, Italy and Turkey. It plans to do this via four more plants similar to the Coega plant elsewhere in southern and west Africa.

PHET expects to scale up to full processing capacity within a few months. Full capacity will be 350,000t per year of fresh tomatoes received (an average of about 1,000t/day), resulting in 48,000t of paste production.

Cape Concentrate aims to derive about half of its input tomatoes from its own production, and half from contract production by small and commercial farmers. Cape Concentrate is continually looking for commercial and contract farmers, offering commercial farmers fixed forward prices for production.
Cape Concentrate has produced a detailed manual with all the specifications involved. Production will meet Globalgap requirements. In cases where Cape Concentrate does the farming on community land, it has undertaken to train community farmers.

Why is Cape Concentrate taking on the enormous extra burden of doing its own production rather than enlisting contract production? Because this is an entirely new sector in the area and the company needs to prove in practice its assertion that tomatoes - regarded as a difficult and disease-prone crop by many SA commercial farmers - can be successfully grown in the Eastern Cape.

And, of course, as a processing company, Cape Concentrate needs to have the security of supply.

Commercial farmers in the Eastern Cape are wary of new schemes – they have been buffeted by failures in chicory, cotton, etc; and the planned production of sugar beet has been much hyped, but that project could well fail.

Cape Concentrate, via subsidiary agricultural companies and joint ventures with communities and other trusts, now has 800ha of irrigated or irrigable land for own production and plans to increase this soon to 1,500ha on which to farm for the Coega project (later this will be much increased again, if the planned duplicate East London plant, to be sited at Berlin, about 300km from Coega, goes ahead).

Total production for the Coega plant will have to be on 3,500ha, producing 350,000t of tomatoes per year (about 100t per hectare per crop).

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Tanzania cashewnut farmers demand revival of processing plants

by Felix Andrew

The government has been urged to restore the non-operating cashew nut plants so as to increase the percentage of processed exports of the crop. At present, more than 70 per cent of cashew nuts grown mostly in the country’s coastal regions is exported in raw form.

Farmer Musa Ndunduma said that all the government owned plants are lying idle due to the country’s privatisation policy.

Tanzania’s earnings from cashew nut exports went up 208 per cent in February, the Bank of Tanzania said in its March 2011 ‘Monthly Economic Review,’ bringing a ray of hope to thousands of Tanzanians who engage in small-scale cashew nut farming. During the same period, the volume of cashew nut exports went up by 106.9 per cent from 60,300 tonnes to 124,800 tonnes.The success is attributed to good weather and sufficient rains in the last year's season.

Experts say a viable processing industry could create 30,000 direct jobs and generate USD40 million in incremental processing revenues annually.

Tanzania's cashew industry generates 5 per cent of the country's export earnings - approximately USD70m annually - from raw cashew nut exports.

IPP Media