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Welcome
to AFRICABIZ, 
Welcome
to Africabiz Online Synopsis
RSS Feed edition. Previous issue available at this
link
Dear faithful reader,
ARE
REGIONAL GROUPINGS THE ANSWER TO THE DEVELOPING GAP IN AFRICA?
Africa's decision makers are convinced that the developing gap of the continent
- vis-à-vis Europe, Asia and Americas - could only be bridged if African
nations are organized into regional groupings.
That conviction arising
from the fact that the consumer-base in each individual African country is not
broad enough to allow for the establishment of profit making businesses in said
countries.
They are convinced that regional groupings will broaden
the consumer-base and increase the purchasing power of the population.
The regional grouping concept had therefore been adopted as the driving force
for the New Economic Partnership For Development - NEPAD - Click
here for more.
Is that strategy a winning one? Are we sure that Regional
Groupings - at the current state of very low economic activity prevailing in
each individual African country - will lead Africa safely and efficiently
on the road of a sustained economic development? Capable of bridging the developing
gap? In a reasonable span of time of 10 to 20 years?
These are fundamental
questions, which need to be properly and critically addressed in order to be sure
that the foundations we African adopt for action are flawless.
Otherwise,
sooner or latter, we will discover that we are wandering on the road of development
for no avail. And valuable time will have been wasted without reaching the target
of bridging the developing gap.
As a contribution to the debate, some
existing "politically correct" economic concepts (Lack of purchasing
power; Consumer-base and so on) had been analyzed and exposed here
under the title: MISLEADING ECONOMIC CONCEPTS TO BE DISCARDED IN AFRICA.
"CONTRIBUTOR'S
GUIDELINES" are
available here. You are
invited to contribute to AFRICABIZ ONLINE MONTHLY ISSUE - with articles related
to "How Africa Could Bridge The Developing Gap".
Many
thanks for subscribing to Africabiz. See you here next month on August 15, 2002.
Dr. B.M. Quenum
Click here for support console
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Business
Opportunities
TROPICAL
FRUIT INDUSTRY AS INCOME BUILDING POWER FOR AN AFRICAN COMMUNITY / PART VI: FRESH
TOMATO PRODUCTION
 In previous issue the consideration
of the quantities of tomato pasta imported by sub-Saharan African countries permits
the following rough estimation of the quantities of fresh tomato that could
be cultivated in sub-Saharan Africa: 5,89 x 142,000 = 832,000 - 247,000 (production
of South Africa + Senegal) (Click here
for more) = 585,000 metric tons.
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ESTIMATION OF THE COST OF PRODUCTION PER HECTARE
The
yield of a tomato field (soil production) depends on the variety of the tomato
seed and the cultural techniques (soil amendment, irrigation system, pest management,
overhead irrigation or trickle fertigation instead or simple streaming / overflooding
irrigation and so on.)
The most sophisticated the cultural techniques
are, the highest the yield per hectare; that could start from 5-10 metric ton
per hectare to reaching 80 -120 metric tons per hectare in South of Extremadura
-Spain.
Here are reported
the different items (Variable costs; Fixed costs and Management costs), which
are the operational components to calculating the production cost for one hectare
of a well organized and managed tomato plantation.
The final figure
obtained is US $ 2,191 per hectare that compares favorably with figure related
to Brazil listed below:
| PRODUCTION
COSTS COMPARISON - YEAR 1999 |
| Algeria | Brazil | Tunisia |
| Cost
US$/Ha |
1,500 |
2,200 |
2,648 |
| Average
Yield - Metric Ton | 15 | 55 | 43 |
| Cost
- US $ - Metric Ton |
100 |
40 |
61.58 |
| Source:
www.tomatoland.com |
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If the technical management of the plantation is well organized; particularly
if trickle irrigation is applied and pest control up to standards, the expected
yield per hectare could be in the range of 50 metric tons (conservative estimate)
per hectare. That gives the cost of production of one metric ton of fresh tomato
to be approximately: US $ 43.82
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ESTIMATION OF GROSS REVENUE AS PER ACREAGE OF PLANTATION
Based
on the estimated yield above outlined of 50 metric tons per hectare, one
gets the following table that lists Production (according to plantation size in
hectares) and related Gross Revenue (Calculated with a minimum of 20% margin
on production costs if the fresh tomato is sold to a concentrate processing plant.)
Let us emphasize that in view of the selling price of fresh tomato in most of
sub-Saharan African countries, the margin above production cost could easily be
put at 50%:
| GROSS
REVENUES X 1,000 US$ |
| Hectares | 50 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 |
|
Metric tons | 2,500 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 15,000 | 20,000 | 25,000 |
|
Revenues | 21.9 | 43.8 | 87.6 | 131.4 | 175.2 | 219 |
- This
is a real niche opportunity for an international investor or African country to
improving its foreign exchange balance. It is also a perfect Economic
Catalyst
Control Your Desktop
HOW
TO REMOVE JUNK FILES FROM YOUR REGISTRY WITHOUT RISKING A TOTAL COLLAPSE OF YOUR
SYSTEM
Windows Registry is the brain of the operating system. The coordination
center for the smooth loading and operation of the several applications you installed
on your system.
When you start Windows, some applications are automatically
loaded, which icons may appear in the system tray. Many others are loaded without
showing any icon in the system tray.
After many install and uninstall,
the Registry is full of hundred to thousand of "obsolete" entries and
information, which are the remains of uninstalled applications. And the Registry
will continue checking and pointing at these remains each time you load the operating
system.
The checking and pointing time to the false entries is responsible
for the loss of speediness you may experience. The remains and false entries
slow down your system, cause crashes, and interfere with other programs.
There are many ways to removing these junks files and regain the speediness
of your system. Some are manual and some performed by dedicated third parties
software. Amongst these software, System
Mechanic stands out of the crowd for its excellent performance.
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