2merkato

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.

Dutch based shareholder of Habesha brewery, Bavaria N.V. acquired two seats on the board of the Ethiopian brewery according to the elections by the general assembly at Addis Ababa Exhibition Center this week.

The Dutch brewer will have 40% representation on the board while the other three seats on the board will be taken by former members of the brewery board, Mesfin Abi, Nahusenaye Araya and Eskinder Desta.

Bavaria will assign two representatives and the new chair of the board will be elected by the new board.

The American brand APC has deployed two of its management staff to Ethiopia in a effort to investigate the alleged prevalence of counterfeit UPS products.

Fake products are damaging to the image of the company said Christian Bertrand, Vice President for Africa and the Middle East with APC.

The company plans to deal with the challenge of counterfeiting through enlarging its product channel so that consumers can access a reliable source of the genuine APC product thereby eliminating counterfeit suppliers from the market and through enacting legal measures according to Bertrand.