Largest Indian Food Processor Joins Ethiopian Meat Sector

The largest Indian meat processor, frozen foods producer and exporter, Allana Group, has invested USD 20 million to establisha a meat processing and exporting business in Ethiopia.

The government has provided 75 hectares of land in Ziway town, in the Oromia Regional State, and the company intends to begin commercial production by September 2014.

Aman R. Khan, head of the company, signed an agreement on Wednesday at the Ministry of Industry (MoI) with ETG Designers & Consultants Plc, a local private firm, for the establishment of a modern meat processing and exporting plant. During the ceremony, Khan asserted that the Indian-based Allana Group will strive to add value to the Ethiopian meat and the livestock sectors. According to Khan, the first phase of the project will see the employment of some 600 permanent staff. On the issue of environmental protection, Khan promised that a world-class effluent treatment plant will be constructed alongside the meat processing project. He said that the waste produced by the slaughterhouse will be processed to produce biogas, and the excess blood of the livestock will be re-used as animal feed.

Mebrehatu Meles (Ph.D.), minister of state at the MoI, said that Allana is in the process of acquiring additional land in the Borena Zone of the Oromia State, an area blessed with abundant livestock resources. The company is also looking at the Somali Regional State as it provides the rich and fertile ground ideal for meat processing. The minister of state urged that both Allana and the local companies commit themselves to meeting the deadlines. Allana hopes that the 'integrated meat processing plant' will be in production by September 2014, aiming to slaughter around 200 cattle and 5000 sheep/goats a day. Initially the plant expects to produce 75 tons of meat daily.

Allana Group, known as Allana Sons in India, exports frozen Halal buffalo meat, coffee, fruit and other commodities from India to some 70 countries. It was established in 1865 and has come to Ethiopia with its own capital and market know-how, Mebrehatu said.

The MoI is budgeting for export earnings of some USD 250 million in the 2006 Ethiopian fiscal year, yet its task is not helped by possessing only five slaughterhouses targeted at exports. The meat-processing sector of Ethiopia is the most untapped, but also the most treacherous, with perennial issues, including the illegal smuggling to foreign countries and supply side constraints. The Ambassador for India, Sanjay Verma, hopes the arrival of Allana will add more value to the Ethiopian economy, following on from the existing USD five billion investment by Indian companies.

BERHANU FEKADE, 4 JANUARY 2014
[ Transfreez Mobile Refrigeration - India's most effective Refrigerated Trucks for Meat Cold Chain]