Sustainably growing and processing fruit in Africa

africaJUICE was established in 2007, when its founders saw the opportunity for sustainably growing and processing tropical fruits in Africa to meet the growing international, regional and local demand for processed tropical fruits and to provide an alternative to the traditional supply sources of Latin America and Asia.

We started the first business, the africaJUICE Tibila Share Company in the Upper Awash valley in Ethiopia, in 2009. This business involved the privatisation, rehabilitation, and expansion of an existing farm and the construction of a new industrial scale fruit-processing facility. We have been exporting passion fruit not from concentrate (NFC) juice and mango purees since late 2010 and supplying local bottlers since 2012.

In the course of 2020 we will invest in new processing to produce emulsions and compounds for local and regional beverage companies. We've also recently added papaya products to the local offering and are finalising plans to add organic products from mid 2021.

How we operate is important to us. africaJUICE strives to be the benchmark for how foreign direct investment is delivered in developing countries. We aim to demonstrate that not only can growth be generated with benefits for the environment and for poverty eradication, but it is 'good business' and should be the model of choice.

africaJUICE has a strategic growth plan that seeks to expand the business in other locations in Africa as we grow the volume & range of our offering and meet the ever-growing need for sustainable products.

About imageAbout image
We offer a range of processed fruit products, including passion fruit NFC and mango and papaya purees.   Tomatoes and Guava can also be processed.  All products are produced according to Fairtrade principles and standards and certified products could be provided on request. We will start offering organic passion fruit NFC during 2021 and follow with other organic products. We also can easily add citrus processing to our offering and also have an evaporator available for concentrates.

Products are currently available only as pure juice/puree with zero additives, aseptically packaged in 220l drums. Other packaging formats will be offered in the future depending on market demand and production capacity; both smaller sizes and alternative packaging methods, including frozen, will be considered.

For the local and regional beverage companies, we will be offering emulsions and compounds from the end of 2020 onwards, complimenting the existing offerings of NFC and purees.

We manage some 1000 hectares of plantations. Besides our processed products we also offer fresh fruit and vegetables for the local and export markets. Products range from citrus, papaya, & mango through melon, tomatoes, sweet paprika, & chillies as well as beans & maize.

Products imageProducts image

Our first project was the africaJUICE Tibila Share Company in Ethiopia's Upper Awash valley, 150 km to the south-east of the capital, Addis Ababa.  The project involved the transformation of a former state-owned fruit farm to create a modern tropical fruit plantation combined with a new processing facility.  We started operations in 2009 and the first phase saw an investment of some US$10million to rehabilitate the farms, establish passion fruit and construct the facility.  We were the first Fairtrade certified tropical fruit juice business in sub-Saharan Africa.

We successfully introduced passion fruit as a new commercial crop to Ethiopia and have some 1000 hectares in total under cultivation of all crops.  We employ almost 2000 people across the sites.  We also developed a new value chain for processing local mangoes and we have exported mango puree from Ethiopia periodically while primarily focusing this product on serving the strongly growing local beverage market through import substitution.



How we operate is very important to us. africaJUICE is guided by a commitment to genuine sustainable development; i.e. development that provides economic returns but also generates benefits for communities and protects the environment.

The key competitive advantages of security of supply and good quality coupled with our commitment to sustainable development will help us gain sufficient market share within growing local and export markets. This combined with an ability to reliably enter into and deliver on long-term supply agreements, helps support margins and retain customers in times of price volatility thus supporting stakeholder returns. Foreign direct Investment and a focus on local markets (import substitution) as well as exports contributes to improving trade imbalances, as we have seen in Ethiopia, while serving underserved local segments such as fruit producers and juice bottlers in a working-capital efficient way.

africaJUICE is a minimum waste operation which also aims for low carbon footprints. We employ appropriate technology to minimise pressure on key local resources, such as water, as well as utilising our waste streams and local sourcing of sustainable inputs. We are also implementing measures to reduce soil erosion and rehabilitate degraded lands across our farms.

In our business we believe that we should have fair and transparent relationships with our employees as well as our business partners and service providers. We have met and continue to follow FairTrade requirements, but have currently allowed our certification to lapse due to lack of demand for FT products. In our businesses we look for the right balance between mechanisation and manual operations though many activities for passionfruit remain labour intensive.  We also aim to create a significant number of skilled jobs, and stimulate local business to be suppliers or service providers where possible. One key mechanism to deliver a wider social impact is to include local smallholders farmers and entrepreneurs  in our "inclusive" value chain as off-takers and suppliers and we have programmes to support their development and enhance their operations.
Sustainability imageSustainability image

info@africajuice.com


AFRICAJUICE BV

Telephone: +31 70 392 7164

Bink36 - M144
Binckhorstlaan 36
2536BE
The Hague, The Netherlands

africaJUICE BV is registered in The Netherlands under Company (KvK) number 27302345 and BTW (VAT) registration number NL8181.45.845.B01
Contact us image