Uganda Development Corporation (UDC), scientists under Food and Nutrition Solutions Limited (FONUS) and the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) have invested sh20b in a mango juice factory known as ‘Nile Zille’ in Yumbe district.

The factory’s raw materials are said to be Uganda’s kagogwa mangoes that are going to be extracted for pulp in the juice making process.

During the board inauguration of the Nile Zille factory project last month at Golden Tulip Hotel in Kampala, UDC executive director Patrick Birungi, mentioned that the Government, together with scientists from Makerere University, have injected sh20b to process juice from Kagogwa mangoes in order to connect science with actions that benefit the country.

“The total investment is about sh20b in financing the project. It is going to be only producing mango pulp, which means it will not do packaging ready to drink. They will be produced in bulk and sold to packaging companies,” Birungi said.

He explained that the project was funded by different actors, one being the Government through public funds, which went through NAADS and UDC.

Birungi added that the scientist also funded the project by investing in the land and research work.

“Aside from the Government, the second source of funding came from scientists, because they invested in the land, science and all research work. All that was purely intellectual property of scientists at Makerere University.

William Kyamuhangire, the former manager for Food Technology and Business Incubation Centre at Makerere University, said after laboratory studies, the kagogwa mangoes were found with 50% pulp content, good flavour and colour.

“They have high levels of sugar, up to 18%. We came up with the pulp, which can be preserved for the making of the final products that would go on the market,” he said.

The board’s chairperson, Isha Biyinzika Kasolo, added that Nile Zille is the first science-based factory of its kind and it is transforming kagogwa mangoes into juice by extracting pulp from them.

“We normally say people study and they do not put things into reality, but these 22 scientists had their research and they put it in reality. They are using local mangoes called kagogwa to make good juice for commercial purposes,” Biyinzika added.

Employability

Kyamuhangire noted that the company is going to employ local people, with seven Ugandans already employed on the technical staff team and during the harvesting season, 150 people will be working for the factory.

“We are not going to import labour. All employees will be Ugandans. We shall not have foreigners,” Kyamuhangire added.

The Nile Zille factory

The factory is based on the local mangoes grown in the West Nile region. It will be a ready market for the farmers, with some companies already making offers to buy mango pulp that will be produced by the factory.

Kyamuhangire said the factory will be producing five metric tonnes of pulp per hour, which translates into 150 metric tonnes per day.

He said in a season, about 6,000 metric tonnes of mangoes will be harvested, which translates into 2,000 metric tonnes of pulp. The juice is said to have a big market from companies, such as Coca-Cola and Britannia.

With enough capital, we shall set up our own line to process the finished product,” Kyamuhangire affirmed.