NEWS UPDATES

by www.FoodBusinessAfrica.com

KWAL relocates to US$28.3M Tatu City Industrial Park facility

KENYA – Kenya Wine Agencies Ltd (KWAL), a subsidiary of Dutch brewer Heineken, has officially relocated its production site to its newly commissioned Ksh 4 billion (US$28.3m) ultra-modern manufacturing facility.

Located at Tatu City Industrial Park Ruiru, the new facility features stateof-the-art equipment with enhanced capacity to meet ever-evolving consumer tastes.

The site also hosts a customer distribution center as well as offices that will provide employees with a better working environment, according to the company.

“Our new plant is expected to greatly enhance production capacity, as well as our competitiveness within the East African region,’’ Kuria Muchiru, KWAL Board Chairperson said.

Pharmaceutical company Otsuka to set up US$38M food & energy drinks factory in Egypt

EGYPT – Otsuka Pharmaceutical, a leading Japanese manufacturing company, has announced plans to set up a US$39.8 million healthy food and energy drinks factory in Egypt’s 10th of Ramadan City.

The Japanese giant already has a presence in Egypt through the Egypt Otsuka Pharmaceuticals Company which was set up in 1992.

The Egyptian subsidiary has a factory in the 10th of Ramadan City that manufactures medicinal products including infusions/injections fluids, amino acids, and tube-feeding equipment.

Egypt Otsuka is planning on exporting healthy food to countries in the Middle East where demand is high due to a growing number of individuals altering their eating habits and embracing a balanced nutritional diet and active lifestyle.

Data Bridge Market Research analyses that the Middle East & Africa health and wellness food market will grow at a CAGR of 8.3% during the forecast period of 2022 to 2029.

Ahmed Zaghloul, president of Egypt Otsuka, during a meeting with IDA’s Chairman Mohamed AbdelKarim, revealed that apart from the new investment the company was considering launching an initial public offering on the Egyptian Exchange.

Coca-Cola Beverages Kenya loses court of appeal case in Nairobi

KENYA – Coca-Cola Beverages Kenya has lost a case in Kenya’s Court of Appeal where it sought to maintain the current status quo where its glass packaging is labeled differently from its bottle packaging.

The three-judge bench of Hannah Okwengu, Dr. Imaana Laibuta, and John Mativo unanimously agreed that it was discriminatory for the firm to indicate the nutritional value of its products on plastic bottles but leave out those on glass ones.

Coca-Cola Beverages Kenya (formerly Nairobi Bottlers Limited) had filed an appeal, arguing that it does not owe the consumers of their products an obligation to provide them with nutritional information, storage, and contact information as held by the High Court in 2018.

The case was filed by Mr. Mark Ndumia Ndung’u to the High Court explaining that the missing nutritional information was essential to enable consumers to know the benefits derived from the consumption of the beverages.