As part of efforts to prevent perennial post-harvest losses recorded by farmers in Osun, the Osun State government in partnership with Australian Collins Crown Limited has inaugurated a fruit production company that collects and processes fruits into juices and allied products.
The factory located within the newly-resuscitated Omoluabi Free Trade Zone in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, is commencing the collection and processing of fruits and vegetables, such as pineapples, oranges, mangoes, among others that are in abundance in Osun, into fruit juices. This is expected to boost employment opportunities and create wealth for the residents of the state.
Speaking at the inauguration of the plant in Osogbo on Friday, Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, said ongoing construction work of a juice factory Collins Crown Limited within the Omoluabi free trade zone, signified painstaking but successful effort of the government to attract investments to Osun as the state is economically-endowed with great agricultural potentials, among other natural endowments.
He said: As you know, our administration runs with a conviction that building the Osun of our dream requires that we have an economy that is revitalised on account of the volume of economic activities that it encourages. This will create wealth and meaningfully engage our unemployed youths.
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“Following the Economic and Investment Summit we hosted in 2019, we established the Osun Investment and Promotion Agency (OSIPA) to interface with investors.
“The fact that this event is holding at the free trade zone again demonstrates our commitment to helping businesses engage in their entrepreneurial activities unhindered.
Other firms will also spring up within this zone and other areas in the state soon,” said Oyetola.
Bode Olaonipekun, the state commissioner for commerce, industry, cooperatives and empowerment, said the establishment of the juice industry would break the jinx of reviving the moribund free trade zone to maximum capacity.
Kola Adeyemo, chairman, Collins Crown Limited, said had the company has acquired state-of-the-art equipment and machinery for the storage, processing and production of juices and allied products from fruits and vegetables in order to cut foreign exchange spent on imports of fruit and vegetable juices abroad, create wealth and generate employment opportunities for many jobless Nigerians.
