Ghanaians should expect the first batch of the much-talked-about Eku Juice, the first product from the Ekumfi Fruits and Juice factory soon.
That is according to the company’s Director of Operations, Fred Kobbyna Acquaah.
While the pack product will hit the market by mid-December, that of the can will also be ready for consumption by January.
The Ekumfi Fruits and Juice Factory is under the government’s flagship programme, One District One Factory.
Its first batch of products to hit the markets is made of raw pineapple and citrus fruits, which come in a 250ml tetra pack.
The company says the 330ml can is expected to follow.
“Basically, the product itself as we designed initially is called Ekumfi Pure Juice because we wanted to put Ekumfi out there. We always want to get a catchy name because we want to look at both the local and international market. Some of our packages will come with the long name. We have another line that does the 330ml can. So we have the can juice and the box-juice. The can will be coming out in January.”
Mr. Acquaah has also been responding to the concerns and controversy surrounding the choice of the product name.
“In wanting to shorten Ekumfi Pure Juice, we ran our minds in our consultations and we could only settle on Eku Juice because we have a long name which is Ekumfi Juice. Eku is the name that we use frequently. So if people think it’s offensive, we can still go for the Ekumfi Pure Juice because it’s the same product. “
The facility is the biggest fruits processing factory in West Africa, with the capacity to process 10 tons of fruits per hour.
Funded by the Exim Bank Ghana Limited, the agricultural industrial intervention has significantly gingered the spirit of entrepreneurship in many Ghanaians as its office keeps receiving quantities of business proposals from various entities and persons across the world.
Operation prospects
Per the company’s five-year strategy vision, it is cultivating more than 4,000 acres of pineapples in many communities in the district as well as in the neighbouring districts that would in all, produce 80 million fruits per annum for the processing line.
It has also projected 600 acres per year, in preparing to switch to the next phase of cultivation that would see the expansion of its raw material base up to the projected 4,000 acres needed to feed the factory at full capacity.
The company also seeks to expand and sustain its 19 shared-grower sites established in Ekumfi Nanaben, Narkwa, Abor, Eyisam, Otuam, Egyaakwa, Asaman, and Gyankoma.
In all, share-growers engaged at the Gyankoma sites have cultivated nearly 600 acres of pineapples and keep planting every day to meet the eight-acre demand of pineapple per week for the factory.
