Fruit farmers in Uganda in Teso sub region are to reap big following the completion of Teso fruit factory in Soroti which is going to start producing processed juice in August.
This was disclosed during a tour of the factor by the minister of Trade and Industry, Amelia Kyambadde and members of the board of Uganda Development Corporation (UDC), which is overseeing the project.
The factory is expected to process over six metric tones of oranges per hour, two metric tonnes of mangoes per hour and four metric tonnes of pineapple per hour making its 648,000 tonnes of oranges per year and 25,000 tonnes of mangoes per year.
This in turn is expected to put a lot of pressure on the would be suppliers of fruits to the factory.
Currently Teso sub region has three million fruit trees with a potential production of 600,000 metric tonnes of fruit per
year which quantity is far less than the required supply."
Kyambadde said the objectives of the project are to increase the incomes of the fruit farmers in Teso region by provided a readily accessible and fairly priced market for produce.
Emmanuel Mutahunga, the acting executive director Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) said they have trained a number of farmers and given them seedlings to prepare to supply the factory.
All machinery has been installed, dry tests have been done and waiting wet tests with actual fruits starting in June.
The contract for the construction of Soroti Fruit Factory was awarded to Hwanshin Uganda Limited at a sum of US$ 7.4m (sh25b) some years ago.
The scope of works covers construction of an office block, main factory, two internal roads, external storage, treatment plant and an external toilet.
