NACRO Opens a Tomato Processing Plant in Chibombo

New Apostolic Church Relief Organization has launched a tomato processing plant in Chibombo, funded by NAK-KARITATIV, a faith based organization based in Germany.

The launch was done by District Apostle Charles Ndandula on 20 th September in Shamputa village where the organization has 18.5 hectares of farm land. The District Apostle urged farmers to take advantage of the plant and diversify into tomato production seeing that there is ready market for the product. The launch was attended by various stakeholders in the district among them the ZNFU, the District Commissioners and Council Secretary’s offices, to mention but a few.

The land is dedicated for use by NACRO for humanitarian services and economic empowerment of the members of the community, which will be attained through skills training for vulnerable youths, local farmers’ demonstration for horticulture and small livestock, and farmer empowerment through value addition.

The plant will be processing tomatoes into tomato paste, hence farmers will benefit from the project as suppliers of tomatoes. The plant has a capacity of producing 1200kg tomato paste in a day. The project is targeting 5100 farmers and so far, 2000 have shown interest.

Additionally, the farm will also produce 600 x 200 seedlings of HTX 14 variety of tomato under a green house. This is a preferred variety to the local Tengero because it does not contain a lot of water.

Mr. Justin Ngulube, the officer in charge of the farm, requested ZNFU Chibombo office to consider a partnership to see to it that farmers benefit from NACRO projects.