CAMEROON – SODECOTON, Cameroonian state- owned enterprise in charge of managing the cotton sector, has made preparation to construct XAF25 billion (US$45.5 million) cotton seed oil production plant in Tchabal Margol-Ngaoundéré, Adamaoua.

This is in anticipation to a rise in cotton production to at least 400,000 tons per annum by 2025 in the country.

The new oil production plant with a daily pressing capacity of 300 tons, will be the third similar infrastructure owned by SODECOTON, joining the facilities in Garoua and Maroua, reports Business in Cameroon.

To facilitate funding of the project, SODECOTON initiated discussions with financial backers, including the AfDB, in 2019. 

The proposed plant will help meet the ever-growing need for quality and affordable oil needs in the southern part of the country and will also boost livestock feed production.

To further boost its oilseed pressing capacity, the state organization previously borrowed XAF2.5 billion (US$4.5 million), from Afriland First Bank, to modernize its Maroua oil mill.

Thanks to that investment, the pressing capacity of the oil mill rose from 70,000 tons in 2016 to 110,000 tons in 2019.

Also, the company is planning to modernize its Garoua oil mill through the XAF6 billion (US$10.9 million) loan it is currently negotiating with the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA).

SODECOTON which overseeing over 250,000 producers, is 59% owned by the State, 30% by French group Geocoton and 11% by Société mobilière d’investissement du Cameroun (SMIC).

Ethiopia’s Shemu Plc expands edible oil processing capacity with US$39.75m

Meanwhile, Shemu Plc, Ethiopian manufacturer of fast-moving consumer products has invested 1.6 billion Br (US$39.75 million) in the expansion of edible oil plant.

The expansion, according to Addis Fortune will enable the company to refine 950tn a day, a rise from 120tn capacity in 2017 when it was inaugurated and 230tn after its first expansion in 2019.

Ethiopia has an approximate demand of 70.9 million litres of edible per month a month. However, domestic production sits somewhere around 47.7 million litres a month, satisfying only two-thirds of the demand.

Lack of locally available raw materials and shortage of foreign currency for importation of the inputs are some of the factor’s curtailing production in the country.

To this end the Food, Beverage & Pharmaceutical Industry Development Institute prioritised the import of crude palm oil, mainly from Malaysia and Indonesia, to be filtered and processed by domestic oil manufacturers.

Shemu is one of the refineries that received foreign currency under this scheme to import crude palm from Malaysia.

In addition, the company secured US$8.5 million to manufacture and distribute a little over three million litres of oil through the quota allocated by the Ministry of Trade & Industry.

To further bridge the demand and supply gap, the country is establishing five cooking oil manufacturing projects, which will have the capacity to provide 50.6 million litres of palm, 27 million litres of sunflower, and 21.8 million litres of soybean oil.

Recently, the country cut ribbon to one of its largest edible oil factories, PhiBela Edible Oil Factory with a daily production capacity of 1.5 million litres of palm oil.

PhiBela factory worth Birr 4.5 billion (US$113.7m) was built by the multi-sectoral company, Belayneh Kinde Group and has the potential to cover 60% of the country’s demand when fully operational.