Kalene Hills Fruit Factory has disclosed that the factory is scheduled to resume fruit processing by the end of October 2024.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times -ZBT, Kalene Hills Fruit Factory Acting General Manager Kelvin Musonda said, they will resume purchasing pineapples once the factory resumes fruit processing, stating that pineapples are perishable fruits which they only purchase when they are producing.
“We started production of pineapple juice last year in September as a trial run. Production of juice is a process as we do not just produce and release it on the market, so the first time we produced was September, and the second time we produced was February this year as a commercial product which also went out for sale.” He said.
Musonda added that after they produced in February this year they had to give it another month, two weeks to see whether it met all the stipulated standards of a product to be sold on the market.
“The out-growers scheme is not yet actualized, so what we are doing right now is just buying directly from the farmers.” He said.
Musonda further disclosed that on their database they currently have about 6000 farmers spread across feed input for the plant.
“I must indicate that the plant capacity is about 3 tons per hour that’s on the feed input on the processing side.” He said.
Musonda further stated that one of the challenges that they have encountered as a plant is the lack of availability of pineapples when they want to produce as it is one of the factors that affect processing as pineapples are seasonal fruits.
