The management of the Ekumfi Fruits and Juices Factory says the factory will be commercially ready in 20 days.
This means Ghanaians could find some of their products on the market for Christmas.
The factory – the first fruit processing factory to be established under the One-District-One-Factory by the Akufo-Addo led government – is expected to produce 300 million packs of juice annually for local consumption and export.
The structural and engineering aspects of the factory, managers of the company say is almost complete as workers are putting finishing touches to the work they started almost two years ago.
The 8 million dollar facility which officially commenced in March 2018 now has over 400 workers including out-growers.
According to the Operations Director of the factory, Frederick Kobina Acquah, the factory is still in the process of securing its final certification from the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) after which full production will commence.
“We are getting ready for full production. We remember after the trial, we have to pick samples and send it to the food and drugs authority. So we have done that and are working to get the final certification”.
According to Kobina Acquah, the juice produced in the Ekumfi Fruits and Juices factory is 100% organic.
“This is a juice squeezed from the fruit itself and that is all. All that we have taken it through is the process of sterilization and pasteurization just to give it a longer life span, but there are no additives added.”
Though the factory mainly produces Pineapple juice, the company has tried to add some variations of the Pineapple juice.
“We have Pineapple raw, we have Pineapple with ginger, but that one will also be the syrup from ginger itself and you mix it with pineapple. We have pineapple citrus with passion fruit, it is also the syrup from the pulp of citrus and that of passion fruit added to the pineapple. So everything is raw with no added stuff”, he said.
Concerning the life span of the product, the Operations Manager said after an initial test, they had determined the product would have a shelf life of a year; however, they are still awaiting the final test to be sure.
“In the beginning we got over a year, but going through the final test will determine a certain bracket that we can put it into. It doesn’t mean it will go bad, but it is required to be put in a certain bracket.”
The Pineapple juice comes in a green and yellow box with the One-District-One-Factory logo boldly featuring on the side.