By Our Reporter
The Soroti fruit factory has officially been opened. Located in Arapai Industrial park, the fruit processing plant will provide a ready market to fruit farmers in Teso region and improve household incomes.
The project which was funded by the Government of Uganda with a contribution of UGX 20.5bn and a grant from the Government of Korea worth UGX 27.8bn, bringing the total cost of the factory to UGX 48.2bn, was commissioned by President Museveni on Saturday.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, the President advised farmers with small pieces of land against growing cash crops and instead opt for other activities like fruit farming, dairy farming, apiary, and poultry keeping which have a higher return on investment per acre.
“Cash crops should be a preserve of farmers or institutions with large tracts of land. For those with small pieces, you should go for crops or activities that offer high financial returns even when done on small scale. That is why I preached fruit farming, dairy rearing, apiary, keeping poultry, in place of coffee growing, tobbaco farming and others,” the President said in his address.
“I have studied the global market, the demand for fruits is big. The same for dairy products, fish and honey that is why I recommend these products. Therefore, let us go into fruits because they are the medicine for poverty for the ‘small people’.” He added.
The factory has a processing capacity of 6 metric tonne/hour and 2 metric tonne/ hour for oranges and mangoes respectively and will be making fruit concentrates and ready-to-drink juice.