Ethiopia to export water to UK
Garanba Bottling, a subsidiary of B&C Aluminum Plc that bottles South Spring Water in Ethiopia, has signed a deal with a UK-based company to export US$1m worth of bottled water to the United Kingdom.
Garanba Bottling was established with an investment of US$12.5million in Aregobena Wereda of Sidama Zone. It operates with 310 employees and has the capacity to produce 16,000 bottles of water an hour.
According to media reports, Garanga Botting will export 1,200 tonnes of bottled water as a trial before regular shipments are scheduled.
The first shipment will take five 20-foot container load, which will constitute one million bottles. South Spring Water will mainly be delivered in 0.6 litre and 1.2 litre bottles.
Before inking the deal, the two parties completed the testing and sampling process, which took close to three months.
“Following the first round, we’ll seal a long-term agreement to ship 50 containers a month,” said Berhanu Getahun, board chairperson of Garanba Bottling.
According to Berhanu, Garanba Bottling has also been negotiating with buyers for close to two months to start exporting its products to Saudi Arabia.
“We’ve sent a sample to the company and currently we are working on the contract agreement,” he revealed.
To encourage the export of bottled water, the Ethiopian Bottled Water, Soft Drink, Fruit & Vegetable Processing Manufacturing Industries Association (EBFSMIA) has sent a letter to the business diplomacy directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate the export of bottled water to neighbouring countries.
Ethiopia is known by the water resources it possesses that provided it the nick name The Water Tower of Africa. Foreign investors and entrepreneurs are lining up to take advantage of this business opportunity by setting up water bottling plants across Ethiopia.
As a result, foreign investments in bottling drinking water and mineral water bottling plnats has risen from six factories in 2011 to 97 in the beginning of the 2020. All these plants are producing around 100 milliliters of water per head per day when their total production is divided to the total number of population, which is estimated to 10 million USD according to some studies.
Recently, a Turkish company has invested $6.5 million in Ethiopia to set up and bottled water plant. Avante Water, owned by the General Group Beverages (GGB), inaugurated its bottled water brand at a ceremony held in capital Addis Ababa. The factory sits on 4,700 square meters factory complex situated 110 kilometers north of the capital. The plant has three production lines including blowing, filling and packaging. It has a capacity of producing 30,000 liters of water an hour.
The company uses the lightest plastic for the bottle which makes it compressible so it takes less space in the trashcan contributing to a cleaner environment.
Origin Water, bottled by Origin Food & Beverage Factory located in Oromia Regional State, has been exporting bottled water since last year with Djibouti as its main destination.
Since embarking upon the export of bottled water, Origin Water has shipped a total of 1.2 million tonnes of product, worth an estimated US$7 million.
“Currently, there are some gaps in our export venture to the neighbouring country due to foreign exchange problems that limited us from importing more machinery to increase our production,” said Haymanot Anbesse, quality control manager of Origin Water.
Currently, there are close to 97 bottlers operational in Ethiopia, with a total registered capital of $92.1 millions.
The increasing competitiveness of the thriving industry compels the bottlers to stretch their reach to foreign countries.
