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Welcome to AFRICABIZ,

Welcome to AFRICABIZ HTML Email edition.Previous issue available at this link

Dear faithful reader,

Current online issue of Business Opportunities in Africa (with synopsis below) is dedicated to the Introduction to Food Enzymes. A very important matter owing to medicinal properties displayed by the enzymes.

Indeed, so called food enzymes - and particularly the ones originating from tropical fruits such as papaya and pineapple - offer a very important window to entering the word market of supplements and nutriments. Furthermore, Papain (from papaya) and Bromelain (from pineapple) are natural enzymes, which are used for the manufacture of vaccines.

Therefore, these natural enzymes will doubtless find a huge commercial outlet in the making of vaccine to eradicate AIDS and HIV.

Currently few African countries (Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Uganda) are engaged in the business of food enzymes (papain mostly). They target the export market of the United States of America / US and the European Union / EU market. Their penetration of said markets is "ridicule": less than 1% of total imports of food enzymes.

There is not a single operation in Africa dedicated to producing enzymes for the local African market in order to providing medicinal enzymatic ingredients to the African populations. That is a total aberration as local market for enzymes is huge and far more promising than the export market to the US and the EU.

In next issue we will consider further investment costs to establishing a factory to produce bromelain.

A FAINT LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

At the end of year 2002, some of the conflicts / civil wars hampering the harmonious development of the continent are showing positive signs of solution.

The crusaders of Sudan's religious conflict are now talking more seriously to ending the 30- year long civil war between Mohammedans from the north and Christians from the south.

Invading Rwanda and Uganda's troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and supporting troops from Angola and Zimbabwe have pulled out of Congo's territory. The solution to ending the civil war in Congo-Kinshasa remains now entirely into the hands of the Congolese themselves.

Rebels of Sierra Leone have lost their grip on the country that is now slowly recovering from a debilitating civil war.

Even in Liberia, the existing status of "no war no peace" seems to be the prelude of a future settlement for peace between LURD's fighters and Taylor's troops.

Only the outcome of the stupid battle for power currently raging in Ivory Coast is not clear at the end of this year 2002. Could Ivory Coast regain its lost stability and retain the integrity of its territory as par the independence day of December 7, 1960?

No one is, on this December 14, 2002, in the position to predict the trend of events in Ivory Coast - peace of full civil war - as involved parties seem determined to enforce the prevalence of their conflicting views as here exposed.

Our utmost wish is to see the total confirmation in year 2003 of the end of these stupid, self inflicted conflicts; in order for Africa to start fighting for the only battles, which are important to win: the battle for the economic development and social improvement; the fight against diseases - particularly against Malaria and AIDS / HIV.

HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS YEAR 2003

AFRICABIZ team wishes you all and your loved ones a very festive Xmas 2002 and a successful business year for 2003.

"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 on January 15, 2003.

Dr. B.M. Quenum
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Business Opportunities

TROPICAL FRUIT INDUSTRY AS INCOME BUILDING POWER FOR AN AFRICAN COMMUNITY / PART X: INTRODUCTION TO THE FOOD ENZYMES MARKET

Pineapple cultivated in African countries is exported as fresh or canned fruit, or locally processed into juice concentrates and syrup for the local and export market. Pineapple bran, the cake / residue obtained after extracting the juice, has a high content of vitamin A: it is an excellent feed for livestock. From the juice citric acid could be extracted, or processed into alcohol, after fermentation.

The most interesting processed product, however, is a food enzyme called Bromelain or Bromelin, which is a competitor to papain.

Table below lists Spot prices of papain during the period of June 1990 - April 1994. (Source: Journal of Commerce June 1990 - April 1994 - posted here). Even if these prices are now outdated, they do give an idea of the expensive pricing papain (and therefore its substitute bromelain) could reach on the international marketplace.

Prices are fluctuating in the US$/ kg 45 to 120 range since 10 years running in close relationship with offer and demand.

Years	6/90	12/90	6/91	12/91	6/92	12/92	6/93	12/93	4/94
$US/kg	45.00	45.00	45.00	45.00	45.00	99.00	99.50	120.00	85.00

Papain is a significant export item for Tanzania, Uganda, RDC and South Africa. However, imports from African countries accounted for under 1% of total imports of enzymes to the US as shown on table available here about US imports.

Obviously there is an opportunity for African countries to entering the market of food enzymes and grabbing a biggest share because, owing to the above pricing of papain / bromelain on the international marketplace, producing and exporting - even small quantities - should be a profitable line of business for African entrepreneurs.

Indeed, there is no doubt that African countries have, with papain and bromelain, a business opportunity with a secure credit worthy outlets to the US, the EU and Japan; not to mention the huge market for nutriments and supplements not yet fulfilled and available right now in the whole continent; plus the possibility to supplying (in the near future) papain and bromelain to the pharmaceutical industry for the production of vaccine against AIDS / HIV.

Next issue 45 shall deal with investment estimate and production costs to producing bromelain. Click here for investment estimate to producing 35 metric tons / year of high grad freeze-dried papain.

For more details on food enzymes market please visit following link.

Control Your Desktop

DO YOU KNOW THAT SOME GATEKEEPERS ARE JUST DISGUISED SPYWARE?

Beware of which Sentinel / Gatekeeper you choose to protect your system from malicious intruders when surfing the Net with a BroadBand connection.

You won't believe it, there are fake Sentinels / Gatekeepers and PopUp fighters, which are simply disguised Spyware. When you install them on your system you grant them full authorization to perform dirty tricks inside your computer as you have accepted Terms & Conditions.

I strongly urge you to spare some time to read from A to Z a paper - A New Spyware Tactic? - by Jerry Cambell of Camtech2000.com, who described two of these bamboozlers. Obviously some marketing companies are ready to do anything to take control of your desktop.

Stick to well known Gatekeepers / Sentinels and take time to read available press reviews and peruse Terms & Conditions. Don't play into the hands of unscrupulous people.

Freebie Of The Month

MAKE USE OF A USER FRIENDLY CURRENCY CONVERTER

There are plenty of currency converter devices online. AFRICABIZ Online has one at following link.

However, when you are working on a financial report or bizplan for instance and need to crisscross the rates of several currencies, it is really annoying to be obliged to always load a currency converter web page in order to perform related rates' conversion.

Having a currency converter seating directly on your desktop will make your work more easier. There are not so many desktop currency converters available.

One standing out of the few for intuitive interface and user friendly performance is Currency Converter 2, a freeware program to convert between over 200 currencies.

Running Currency Converter 2, you can keep all the exchange rates up-to-date by using the one-button Internet Update-function (with proxy support) to load the Exchange Rates from the Internet. It requires Windows 95 / 98 / XP with IE4 or higher.

It features also Cross Rates device, which can list the cross rates of four different currencies; and a Mini Converter for two different currencies.

After the installation you may, under Windows 98, put the Mini Converter into your StartUp Menu like this: 1- Start. 2- Settings. 3- Tasks bar & Start Menu. 4- Start Menu Program. 5- Add. 6- Browse for Mini World Converter. 7- Select. 8- Next to choose StartUp folder and click OK to finish.

With Mini Converter in the system tray, you can launch Currency Converter 2.0 any time. One tip:: it is better to use in the Settings for rates updates Pacific Exchange Rate Service - University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Click here to reach Currency Converter web page.