Makueni County is set to enter the ready to drink juice market soon. The second fruit processing line arrived at the Makueni Fruit Processing factory at Kalamba yesterday.
This line will refine ready to drink juice, with a production capacity of 8,000 litres per hour.
The factory was established by the County government in 2017 to stem wastage and raise incomes for fruit farmers in the county. The Plant at Kalamba has a capacity to process 5 metric tons of raw mangoes producing 3,000 liters of Puree (Mango concentrate) per hour. Puree when diluted is used to make ready to drink juice. The factory has a capacity to process 3000 metric tonnes per season leaving about 300,000 metric tonnes to go to other markets.
According to Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana, 30%-40% of mango produce was going to waste before the County government build the Makueni Fruit Processing Plant to reduce post-harvest losses. Makueni County leads in mango production in Kenya with a total of 4,311,375 mango trees grown by 28,696 farmers.
