Makli

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Maaza Mango, an internationally renowned beverage brand with over 40 years in the global market, is to be produced in Ethiopia, according to Yeshola Tsehay Pvt. Ltd. Co.

Disbursing USD 150,000 for the branch franchise, Yeshola Tsehay, a local company, has launched a 50 mln birr investment and is currently under process to obtain a 25,000 square meter plot in the Burayu area, Oromia Region, to set up the plant - Yeshola Tsehay Bottling Factory.
“If the provision of the plot is as rapid as the licensing process is, we will very soon shift from importing Maaza Mango to exporting it to neighboring countries - Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda and Somalia,” says Hiwot Melku, owner of Yeshola Tsehay Plc, which has been the exclusive importer of the product from Dubai for over two years.

As the local demand of the product continues to increase, the company’s import of Maaza Mango has now reached 30 containers plus monthly, according to Hiwot. He believes that his factory will begin production in less than 18 months.

Yeshola Tsehay Plc. will not be the first company to produce Maaza Mango locally. Hiwot notes of a Sudanese company that began to production of the juice locally a few years ago but, he says ‘has yet to meet increasing demands even after the factory installed a modern 12 million Euro production plant’. This is, according to him, a point strengthening his decision to open the factory in Ethiopia.

“It is primarily to fulfill the increasing demand in our country and to export to neighboring countries that we decided to open the factory under license, here in Ethiopia,” he says.
The company plans to provide the product at a price equivalent to other bottled drinks. Yeshola Tsehay also produces the bottles and the labeling.

Maaza Mango was first introduced in the late fifties in India. Currently, there are eight factories around the world: Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Kuwait, Tanzania, Armenia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Maaza Mango is packed in all types of forms - Glass, Pet, Paper-pack and Cans in various sizes ranging 250ml, 330ml up to 2 liter.