By Emma Una

CALABAR— THE 50,000 tons per annum cocoa processing factory in Cross  River State,  equipped with modern facilities, is set to process cocoa beans from the state and neighbouring West African countries such as Cameroon and Equatorial  Guinea for export.

COCOA

The factory established by Senator Ben Ayade administration in Ikom, in central district of the  state, which is scheduled to be  commissioned at the end of the year, will process cocoa into liquor and  chocolate bars for export to Europe and China.

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Professor  Anthony Eneji, with Managing Director of AA Universal, Mr Chris Agara, the firm constructing the factory while on a periodic inspection of facilities at the  factory,weekend, said it was equipped to   process 240 tons of cocoa daily, which meets international standard.

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He said: “A lot of work has been done here and all the key structures and facilities have been put in place making it ready for test running at the end of December.”

Managing Director of AA Universal,  Mr Agara,said work was progressing both day and night to meet the December commissioning timeline and  that  Nigerians are being trained by the German expatriates installing the equipment on how to carry out  maintenance of the equipment  to keep  it in top form to meet the tonnage production capacity.