Business
Nigeria To Establish Fruit Juice Plant By 2012
Director-General, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Peter Onwualu said on Wednesday in Abuja that Nigeria would establish a fruit juice concentrates plant before the end of 2012.
Onwualu told newsmen that the establishment of the plant would checkmate the importation of fruit juice-making concentrates from other nations.
He said that the Council was now concentrating on multiplying fruits plantlets through tissue culture and distributing same to farmers for planting, adding that discussions had started with technical partners.
“The project as it is, we believe that before the end of 2012, the first fruit juice concentrates plant would have been established.
“Our target is to see a stopping the importation of fruit juice concentrates as raw materials for that sector in the next couple of years and we are tackling this problem from the supply side.
“Ultimately as the project progresses, we’ll end up with making sure that we now have fruit juice concentrates production plants within Nigeria.
“Once you have a number of such plants, then we can ask the fruit juice manufactures to stop the importation.
“Having these plants means more employment for our people: this would now help to drive the demand for more fruits and so more people would go into plantations of fruits: it has a spiral effect in the economy.’’
Onwualu said that the Council was already organising training programmes for major fruit juice manufacturing companies in Nigeria as well as some interested government agencies.
Reports say that the fruit juice concentrates plants’ project is a project sponsored by the World Bank STEP-B projects.
Onwualu also said that the Council was promoting the establishment of a plastic recycling plant in Nigeria by two private sector operators.
He said that technical information on the quantity and availability of plastic wastes for the successful running of the plant was ready, while expressing hope that the project would take off soon.
He said: “We believe that in the near future, they would be able to establish a plastic recycling plant, either in the FCT or in Kogi State.
“Wherever it is established, it is our hope that this would become a very useful thing for the economy because that would mean that you would not be able to find waste plastics within the country.’’