kitayabi
April 12th, 2011, 07:46 AM
Ashraf Group, a Sudanese business interest with a series of agro-industry plants in Bahir Dar Town, Amhara Regional State, inaugurated its investments on Monday, April 4, 2011, after almost six years of them being initiated.
The company’s senior management opened its juice extracting and plastic bottle processing plants as well as two edible oil refineries and a modern abattoir, after three planes full of guests were transported from Addis Abeba and Sudan in chartered flights.
“The launching of these investments symbolises the growing economic relationship between Sudan and Ethiopia,” said Tefera Deribew, minister of Agriculture (MoA), during the inauguration inside the 37,000sqm complex of the company.
Tefera was one of the senior federal government officials attending the inauguration together with Mekonnen Manyazewal, minister of Industry (MoI); Tadesse Haile, state minister for MoI; and Kassa Teklebrehan, speaker of the House of Federations, who used to be the head of the region’s investment bureau when Ashraf took an interest in investing in the region.
However, the complex was scheduled to be debuted by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who cancelled his appearance at the last minute, and Omar Al-Bashir, president of Sudan.
The latter cancelled his visit when members of the Addis Abeba diplomatic corps, particularly those of Western embassies, declined to attend in order to avoid company with Al-Bashir, according to reliable sources.
“By the time his [the president’s] not coming was confirmed, it was too late for the diplomats to change their mind,” said a source knowledgeable of the diplomatic glitch.
In the absence of both the leaders and senior diplomats, Ashraf managers opened their plants for visits. Hindi, the seven-year old daughter of Ashraf S. Ahmed Hussein, the investor behind the group, was the day’s star.
Her fluency in Amharic in welcoming guests was as impressive as the company’s modern abattoir. The facility, one of the seven in operation across the country, has the capacity to slaughter 600 heads of cattle and 3,000 sheep as well as goats per day. The cut-offs are used as feed for the rendering plant to produce fish food and natural fertilisers.
The country plans to generate one billion dollars of revenues from the export of meat and dairy over the next five years, with a projected growth of 62pc, making this project crucial, according to Tefera.
The abattoir was one of the early projects that took Ashraf, who spoke movingly during the inauguration over the loss of his parents in the past three years, to Bahir Dar, in 2004. The group subsequently acquired the 137,000sqm Bahir Dar Edible Oil SC from the Privatisation and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency (PPESA) in April 2008, where it is installing Ashraf Agricultural Industrial Complex.
Ashraf Edible Oil Factory, which has an annual production capacity of 16,500tn of oil, will bottle oil from groundnuts as well as niger seed, rapeseed, and sesame under the Bahir Dar Cooking Oil brand. It will be packed starting from half a litre PET bottles.
Indian technicians and engineers were putting the final touched on the mill, before commissioning is conducted.
None of the plants had begun manufacturing or bottling at the time of the inauguration. Some, such as the juice extraction which will bottle a brand of “Bravo,” had not been completed last week.
Some visitors wondered about the feasibility of putting up an abattoir in an area without a large cattle population. The majority of Ethiopia’s 52 million heads of cattle, 33 million sheep, and 30 million goats are believed to live in low-lying areas and paternalistic parts of the country.
Ashraf’s Volvo manufactured 12 trucks for transporting the animals. These were parked inside the compound, and have perhaps been there for years, according to an eyewitness.
Managers said they would be used to transport cattle from distant places, such as Borena.
“They should have a long-term plan to develop a ranch nearby,” said a senior minister. “On the other hand, the presence of the abattoir may encourage farmers around Bahir Dar to start rearing cattle.”
A visitor working for an international organisation appeared to be more impressed with the potential of the group’s integrated approach from farm to ranch to agro-processing.
“They will have a good chance of succeeding if all their projects in the pipeline materialised,” he told Fortune.
After six years of establishing itself with the one billion Birr investment its managers claim to have spent, Ashraf Group has yet to put a product out of its plants for the public to consume.
http://addisfortune.com/Despite%20Diplomatic%20Glitch%20Ashraf%20Debuts%20Multimillion%20Dollar%20Complex.htm
The company’s senior management opened its juice extracting and plastic bottle processing plants as well as two edible oil refineries and a modern abattoir, after three planes full of guests were transported from Addis Abeba and Sudan in chartered flights.
“The launching of these investments symbolises the growing economic relationship between Sudan and Ethiopia,” said Tefera Deribew, minister of Agriculture (MoA), during the inauguration inside the 37,000sqm complex of the company.
Tefera was one of the senior federal government officials attending the inauguration together with Mekonnen Manyazewal, minister of Industry (MoI); Tadesse Haile, state minister for MoI; and Kassa Teklebrehan, speaker of the House of Federations, who used to be the head of the region’s investment bureau when Ashraf took an interest in investing in the region.
However, the complex was scheduled to be debuted by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who cancelled his appearance at the last minute, and Omar Al-Bashir, president of Sudan.
The latter cancelled his visit when members of the Addis Abeba diplomatic corps, particularly those of Western embassies, declined to attend in order to avoid company with Al-Bashir, according to reliable sources.
“By the time his [the president’s] not coming was confirmed, it was too late for the diplomats to change their mind,” said a source knowledgeable of the diplomatic glitch.
In the absence of both the leaders and senior diplomats, Ashraf managers opened their plants for visits. Hindi, the seven-year old daughter of Ashraf S. Ahmed Hussein, the investor behind the group, was the day’s star.
Her fluency in Amharic in welcoming guests was as impressive as the company’s modern abattoir. The facility, one of the seven in operation across the country, has the capacity to slaughter 600 heads of cattle and 3,000 sheep as well as goats per day. The cut-offs are used as feed for the rendering plant to produce fish food and natural fertilisers.
The country plans to generate one billion dollars of revenues from the export of meat and dairy over the next five years, with a projected growth of 62pc, making this project crucial, according to Tefera.
The abattoir was one of the early projects that took Ashraf, who spoke movingly during the inauguration over the loss of his parents in the past three years, to Bahir Dar, in 2004. The group subsequently acquired the 137,000sqm Bahir Dar Edible Oil SC from the Privatisation and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency (PPESA) in April 2008, where it is installing Ashraf Agricultural Industrial Complex.
Ashraf Edible Oil Factory, which has an annual production capacity of 16,500tn of oil, will bottle oil from groundnuts as well as niger seed, rapeseed, and sesame under the Bahir Dar Cooking Oil brand. It will be packed starting from half a litre PET bottles.
Indian technicians and engineers were putting the final touched on the mill, before commissioning is conducted.
None of the plants had begun manufacturing or bottling at the time of the inauguration. Some, such as the juice extraction which will bottle a brand of “Bravo,” had not been completed last week.
Some visitors wondered about the feasibility of putting up an abattoir in an area without a large cattle population. The majority of Ethiopia’s 52 million heads of cattle, 33 million sheep, and 30 million goats are believed to live in low-lying areas and paternalistic parts of the country.
Ashraf’s Volvo manufactured 12 trucks for transporting the animals. These were parked inside the compound, and have perhaps been there for years, according to an eyewitness.
Managers said they would be used to transport cattle from distant places, such as Borena.
“They should have a long-term plan to develop a ranch nearby,” said a senior minister. “On the other hand, the presence of the abattoir may encourage farmers around Bahir Dar to start rearing cattle.”
A visitor working for an international organisation appeared to be more impressed with the potential of the group’s integrated approach from farm to ranch to agro-processing.
“They will have a good chance of succeeding if all their projects in the pipeline materialised,” he told Fortune.
After six years of establishing itself with the one billion Birr investment its managers claim to have spent, Ashraf Group has yet to put a product out of its plants for the public to consume.
http://addisfortune.com/Despite%20Diplomatic%20Glitch%20Ashraf%20Debuts%20Multimillion%20Dollar%20Complex.htm