Ngoma: Pineapple factory collapse while operations start set for August 2021
Heavy rains destroyed a pineapple factory in Mugesera Sector, Ngoma District, on Sunday evening, January 10.
Recently the owner of the factory had told a local Media that the construction work had reached 50% of the construction work.
The most damaged parts are the walls, as some of them have fallen to the ground.
Mapambano Nyiridandi, Ngoma District Vice Mayor for Economic Development, told MUHAZIYACU that heavy rains were believed to be the cause of the collapse of the factory.
However, he adds that the owner is yet to establish the real cause as he probably also think about the Engineering problems
Mapambano said the company’s plans to continue despite the catastrophe
In the meantime
In the area where the factory is being built, there is more than 2,500 hectares of pineapple cultivation on a consolidated land, and farmers expect that they will no longer encounter the loss due to lack of markets.
Alexis, the head of the Mugesera-KOABANAMU Pineapple Farmers’ Cooperative, which has more than 90 members, told MUHAZIYACU that if the factory works as they say, they will be cut off from the losses.
“Right now, the average pineapple production we see per day can’t go below 70 tons per week, that’s just around the corner, so if we see a factory that will be a reliable market near us, we will no longer encounter losses”
Shema Ivan, the director of 1000 Hills Products Rwanda, which is building a pineapple processing plant in Mugesera Sector, had earlier told MUHAZIYACU that it is expected to use modern technology to process and dry pineapple products, so that they will be exported.
At the time before the collapse of the the factory, Shema says the plant, if left unchanged, will start receiving and processing pineapple production in August 2021, and will start with the capacity to process no less than 90 tons per month.
According to Ngoma District, pineapples are now cultivated on more than 4,000 hectares, mainly in Zaza, Sake and Mugesera sectors.
