2merkato

The main Dam at the Kesem Kebena sugar irrigation project has successfully retained water. The current water reserve in the dam retained in the last weeks of the rainy seasons is enough to irrigate a 20 thousand hectare sugarcane plantation in the Afar Regional State said Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister for Water and Energy.

The Water Works Construction Enterprise has been working around the clock to finish the project by the end of the rainy season it was noted.

The dam which has the capacity to retain 500 million cubic meters of water will be completely finished in the coming weeks according to Alemayehu.

Assela Malt Factory, Ethiopia is secured 95 million birr in gross from the sale of malt in the previous financial year.

The revenue was earned from the sale of 218 thousand quintals of malt according to Abera Mekonnen, Head of Plan and Information for the factory.

The profit earned in the fiscal year exceeds that earned in the year before by more than 31 million birr he noted. The factory is generating more profit from year to year to coordinated effort on the part of the factory employees said Abera.

The Ethiopian Hansom International Glass factory, which had temporarily halted production due to hikes in international furnace oil prices, is to re-launch production according to Xia Yong, General Manager of the company.

The company found it hard to sustain production following the increase in the price of furnace oil from just 5 birr a liter before 2009 to 13 birr a liter said Yong. The factory suspended production activity in April 2010 and has reopened at this time after taking several steps to minimize costs.

Measures taken towards achieving this end include reducing the size of the furnace and diversifying the color of the product he noted.

A Charcoal plant was inaugurated in the Southern Regional State of Ethiopia. The factory is planned to play a significant role in efforts to generate renewable energy from agricultural by-products as part of the initiative for Green Development said Wondimu Tekle, State Minister for Mines and Energy.

The factory can potentially produce more than 15 tons of charcoal from coffee husks alone said Dereje Jebo, Manager of the Gedo Development Association.

Farmers can also make extra income from selling the coffee husks to the factory he added.

The Expansion project on the Fincha Sugar Factory intended to double the production of the factory has been completed.

The 4.5 billion birr expansion project is expected to raise the production capacity of the factory from 1.1 million quintals per annum to 2.7 million quintals of production every year according to Girma Wayu, Manager of the factory.

The expansion will also increase the production of ethanol at the factory to 20 million liters every year from just eight million liters at present he noted.