February 8th, 2009
Business news by Leo Odera Omolo
TANZANIA’S first fully fledged fruit processing market located in the central region town of Mogoro is facing serious competition from China, Vietnam, Thailand, South Africa and Ghana.
The Company is introducing diluted and ready trunk juice in 230ml and liter packets in the local and regional markets this month he said. The Company also to assist markets tomato price he said. Tanzania pineapple season ends in the third week of February, so the factory will switch to processing Oranges by April.
Mr Thakore said Unnat had already ordered waste treatment machinery from China to dry wet waste, which will be used to generate steam to run the plant, This will help reduce the cost of the final product so it can compete with imports from Asia.
The residue from the concentrators is fermented and given back to farmers as organic fertilizer. Situated in Morogoro’s export processing zone Unnat when has been operational for the part of the month, has extended a lifetime to over 15000 farmers from the supply pineapple to the Company.
Unnat has already exported fruit concentrates to Qatar. The factory has a capacity to process 140 tunnel of raw fruit per day which is equivalent to over 2000 tones of concentrated juice per annum. According to Mr. Thakore the Company target to have 25,000 farmer registered in Morogoro and the neighboring Tanga regions by next year.
Besides providing the former with a guaranteed market the company has reserved 11 per cent of its shares to be sold to farmers. Morogoro and Tanga are major producers of fruit in Tanzania but most of their produce goes waste or sold to middle men at throw away prices.
In the absence of agricultural extension workers in Tanga and Morogoro ,Unnat is conducting worr shops and seminars for farmers to educate them in the best methods of planting and caring for fruits. Other fruits targeted by Unnat are mangoes, passion fruit and bananas.