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Africa: an old and a new factory about to start up (again)
Zimbabwe: Arda to ramp up tomato processing
State-owned enterprise Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) is looking to ramp up a tomato processing and canning plant it set up in partnership with beverages maker Schweppes Holdings.
State-owned enterprise Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) is looking to ramp up a tomato processing and canning plant it set up in partnership with beverages maker Schweppes Holdings.
The tomato processing and canning factory is a public-private-partnership arrangement between Zagrinda, a company owned by Arda and the Development Trust of Zimbabwe, a division of Schweppes Zimbabwe.
Recently appointed Arda chairman Ivan Craig said in an interview that there were plans to boost production of the tomato canning project. “The project is going very well but it is under-capacitated at the moment. We are going to come up with out-grower projects where we are going to recruit a lot of farmers to produce and feed into the plant so that we operate at full capacity,” Craig said. “We are saying the chances of pushing it to 100% capacity utilization are very high because we have everything required to produce enough to feed into the plant,” he added.
Craig also said there were plans by the restructured Arda board and management to revive operations at the Esigodini plant, which is currently not running.
The initial objective of the project was to produce tomato paste with around 70% of the produce being for the export market while the remainder catered for the domestic market, with the initial target being to process 100 tonnes daily at the Norton plant.
Cameroon to soon host a tomato processing factory
In the coming months, Cameroonian firm Sotreas – Société de transformation des produits d’élevage et d’agriculture du Sahel – could launch the construction of a tomato processing factory at Djagalaï, Maroua.
According to the ACDIC (the Citizen Association for the Defense of Collective Interests), contrary to popular belief, the project area is suitable for tomato farming. For the association, the factory can easily get its tomato supplies given that Maroua is just some thirty kilometers from Meskine, Mogom, Yambarang, and Katoual, the most suitable regions for tomato farming.
The construction timeframe and the volume of investment required have not been disclosed yet, but the factory is expected to add value to the local production of tomatoes, which is a perishable good. Indeed, there is almost no means of conservation when farmers do not sell their tomatoes so they are sometimes obliged to throw away rotten ones.
Sources: theindependent.co.zw, businessincameroon.com
