Firms sow seeds for aloe vera factory

Tanzanian and Chinese investors are constructing a $10 million integrated aloe vera factory and farm in Tanzania, where operations are expected to commence in the next six months.

The two companies, Utegi Technical Enterprises Tanzania Ltd and Hainan Zhongchen Biological Engineering Co, teamed up to invest in the project, which will lead to the farming of aloe vera plants and manufacturing of products.

Otieno Igogo, founder and executive chairman of Utegi Technical Enterprises, says the process of registering a joint company is proceeding and will be completed at any time.

"We are already in the process of registering a joint company at the Business Registration and Licensing Authority with my Chinese partners and thereafter we will register our project with the Export Processing Zone Authority."

The farm and factory is expected to be in either Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania, or Morogoro, some 200 kilometers west of the capital.

Utegi Technical Enterprises also deals in clearing and forwarding, logistics and construction.

It currently takes less than four days to register a company at BRELA and a few hours to do the same at EPZA.

The firm led a team of scientists from the National Institute for Medical Research and Ministry of Health to visit the Haikou based company, which has an annual turnover of between $200 million and $500 million.

"We want these scientists to go and see firsthand what this Chinese investor is doing back home, which we want to replicate here.

"It's a big investment opportunity which will also create demand for production of aloe vera crops," says Igogo.

Among the products manufactured by Hainan Zhongchen Biological Engineering are aloe vera dried powder, gel, gel spray, gel concentrate juice and juice.

Aloe vera products have medicinal elements that can help boost immunity, fight aging and provide relief against skin conditions.

"Meanwhile we are also registering Hainan Aloe Vera manufactured products so that we can start importing and selling them locally," Igogo says, pointing out that the factory will manufacture aloe vera products to be sold locally and for export.

Zou Fuxiang, from Hainan Zhongchen Biologic Engineering, says the factory's location is crucial.

"In order to preserve the crop's medicinal powers, it needs to be at the factory within six hours after being harvested."

The project will create huge demand for aloe vera plants, which grow well in tropical areas, in addition to creating jobs.

"We will employ a variety of people with different disciplines including scientists, engineers and technicians," Fuxiang says.

Hainan Zhongchen has a production capacity of 8,000 metric tons of aloe gel, 800 metric tons of concentrate, 25 metric tons of freeze dried powder and 100 metric tons of direct heat-dried powder.

The company's organic products have international certification from Ecocert SA of France, SGS International in the UK and the International Aloe Science Council Inc in the United States.

For China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 03/20/2015 page21)