Ethiopia 6 – Africa Juice

This visit is another highlight of our trip.

Our lovely Irish friend Dave co-owns a fruit farm near Adamo and we are able to coordinate with him for a visit to his farm (which he does monthly). They have a house on site where the the on-ground managers live and a spare room where we can do an overnight stay. As we wend our way up the valley from Adamo, we begin to realise what a big venture Africa Juice is as we repeatedly see signs turning off to the road leading to Africa Juice fields, factories and premises. We have no idea what to expect, but this is clearly a big business. We know that Dave plus 3 others (Irish/Dutch, Dutch and English?) bought a fruit farm in Ethiopia, apart from that we have to guess the rest.

It’s great to see a lovely familiar face, with big hugs all round, (we last saw Dave in a ski helmet and salapettes on the Austrian slopes). We are given a glass of awesome chilled passion fruit juice, straight from the fridge, straight from the vines right there in the fields. Cool and delicious, and feeling refreshed, we all climb into the big jeep / truck / farm vehicle – he insists we belt up. Oh dear, he would have been disappointed by our slovenly bad road habits of lolling around in the back of our land cruiser, without any seat belts on, Gabriel on Mark’s lap in the front etc etc, but as he quickly points out, as the owner of the company, who sets the rules…. We set off on a tour of the farm, up and down the fields, weaving between the passion vines (introduced by them to Ethiopia and doing a roaring trade), and the papaya trees . We learn how the workers cross-pollinate the fruit manually, each evening, when the flowers open, how they are picked, sorted, crated up and carted off to the warehouse ready for the juicing machines. We see the orange trees and the irrigation systems and then clamber up on foot to a small hill nearby, with great views over the valley, where Dave produces ice cold gin (he knows it’s a favourite of mine), tonic and limes and we toast to Ethiopia and good mates and survey the land below in the valley. It’s hard not to think of the opening line from “Out of Africa”… I once had a farm in Africa, as the sun sets. Quite a special evening.

Back to the house, where supper is produced on the terrace, for the local managers (Dutch, Dutch/Irish, Dave, Liberian and us 2 Brits). We have an entertaining evening, during a tumultuous monsoon rainstorm and I am glad that we made it to see this farm, in another corner of Africa. And the children are served their suppers on small tables in the sitting room and watch the Lego movie which Dave happens to have on his laptop.

We do a tour of the juicing factory the next day. This means getting kitted our in white clinical robes and head covers, before setting foot on the premises. Sadly for us, Wednesday is a non-juicing day, so we don’t get to see the fruit and juice in action. This massive warehouse is one hell of a juicing machine,  designed and engineered to squash, and mash and pulp, with a switch of a few buttons, extracting  juice from fruits. (Guava, passion, orange, and tomato paste – the papayas get sold locally in Addis as fruit) in a matter of seconds. With a lab on site to test that the juice is of the highest degree, and engineers to inspect and constantly check the devices. We see the end result. Barrels and barrels of sealed bags filled with juices, which get sent by containers all over the world. Not only that but all  the workers are housed and well provided for and Africa Juice is very involved in providing schools and clinics in the local area. A very viable and impressive business and I feel proud of Dave’s venture.

I suddenly have a recurring thought and possibly a dream, of an idea inspired by our Visit to Africa Juice and a previous trip to Morelia in Mexico for a future business but I need to work out how to do it…. I have 11 months left to plan!