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In April 2009, africaJUICE Tibila Share Company, a joint venture between africaJUICE BV of the Netherlands and the Ethiopian government, took operational control of Tibila Farm in Ethiopia’s Upper Awash Valley.

AfricaJUICE has built a new fruit-processing facility with state-of-the-art processing, sterilization, and packaging equipment to rehabilitate and expand the farm that now employs 2,400 people in roles ranging from security guards to production line managers.

A fundamental aspect of the project is the Outgrower Incubator Programme that partners with local farmers to supply fruit to africaJUICE for processing. The programme’s goal is to develop and support over 1000 hectares of outgrowers, organized as cooperatives, to supplement the supply of fruit to the processing facility and extend community participation. The farmers participating in the programme stand to earn a much higher income than they are currently earning producing primarily onions and tomatoes.