I got lost in the middle of the largest pineapple farm in Ghana! And it's exciting to know that it's owned by Ghanians. How do you feel anytime you walk in here? I feel so happy about it. I mean, I get in here and I cast my mind back to the early days that we came here. It was all bush. And then I look at the things that we dream to do, and to tell you that we exceeded what we expected.  And as a proud ambassador for made in Africa goods, you know what? I need to share this exciting news with you all. But hey, first of all, like this video. If you are also proud of what you're seeing, share this video so that others can have a piece of this. And if it's your first time seeing this face on your screen, subscribe to be part of this awesome channel. Believe it or not, the revolution is happening.  And it's about time each and every African needs to get involved to see Africans converting raw materials into a finished product. It's something that we all need to talk about. Clapping for you because you guys are changing the narrative. The narrative of Africans always exporting raw materials to the West for them to turn it into a finished goods and send it back to us for us to buy. That's the kind of revolution we are putting up here. So we are just harnessing the energy and the potentials of Africa to produce world-class products and put it out there. And once again, it's done by Africans. Sure, sure. Full Africans. It means Africans are capable. We are more than capable. And we have shown that by our project, looking at the total value chain, looking at us moving from land preparation all the way to that box of juice that you see on the shelf in Walmart. It comes from us. That's incredible. I know. If you really want to have a taste of this natural juice from Ghana, check the link in the description. And trust me, your support will go a very, very long way. Listen, I've never seen a farm in this nature. I mean, it's so large that I feel like I'm in a new city. What's the name of this farm? Okay, so we are in the Sarado part of the Kofi district. So this farm is called the Sarado site. And how many acres? Okay, so presently we are in the thousands. We are around a thousand now. But the truth is that we grow every day because we harvest every day to produce every day. So, I mean, it goes like that. But if you want us to take the exact figures, we have to now come in to take the figures. But we are in the thousand on this plot. But then there are others like we saw this morning on another site. We have another 7, 800 on another site. But we have six of these large sites. And then there are other smaller sites. We call them smaller, but they are not smaller. They are 200 acres. They are 150 acres.  In total, how many acres of land fits the factory? Okay, so we need for the factory to run good at the barest minimum, we need around 4, 5,000 acres of pineapples. Yes, but we are targeting 12,000 as we speak. So we see a lot of new works going on and all of that. And remember, we are not processing only pineapples. So this volume added to the other produce that we use like the citrus, like the passion, like the ginger. Gives us that variety that we can put out there. You know, he mentioned the name of this farm. But I think it's a city on its own. So please, I have a name and you guys need to pay me for me to give you the name. So welcome to the Pineapple City. Wow, then possibly what we should have is Pineapple City 1. Because this is what he said. There are many of these. Six of these you see today. There's a community one of these ones. Exactly. See the name is coming out. This is incredible. We call it a sea of pineapples. A sea of pineapples. To do a photo, you need an helicopter to do this. To do a photo. I think even the drone cannot do justice to it. You send your drone and it doesn't go to the end. No. That's what happens. That's what I'm saying. I've never seen anything like this. And all of this has been, I've been got in here. We got here through the energies of the people here. And the agronomy director he spoke to this morning. He's doing a fantastic job. He's the one who had seen to all of this. He virtually lives here with the people. And please he's also a Ghanian. Sure. Everybody here is a Ghanian.  Whose idea is this?  So these ideas came from Ghanians. Who sat down and say let's try to change the narrative.  That can be done from here. But the narrative has always been, okay, take the raw material out there and get it done. Then we say no. But what's the rocket science in all of this? What should we do? So we put our energies to it. And then we put our pens to the task. And here we are. So we have our hands and our pens all getting us here. What type of pineapple are you guys growing in here at the moment? So what we are doing here is sugar loaf here. We have smooth Ghanian. We also have MD2. That's another variety that we process here. We are doing trials for another variety called Queen Victoria. So at least we use these four. The three major and then the one on trial. But the combination of this is what gives us that premium juice you have on the shelves. What makes your juice so special? It is. It is. Because the juice is just what it is. It is the syrup or the extract from the fruit itself and nothing more. No water, no additive, nothing zero. So we see from the factory processing to see that whatever we take from here is what we put out there. And it is what it is. So if we say juice, that's why ours is called a pure juice. It is unaltered juice. Nothing makes, not even a drop of water. And that makes us unique. I'm a bit curious in terms of all the pineapples that I see in here. So let's go for one acre. On an acre, how many pineapples can you cultivate on an acre? So on an acre you're doing around 20,000 pineapples on an acre.  So on a thousand acre, I'm a very good mathematician. 20 million. Exactly, 100,000. But that's for just this plot. So count the other plots that we will visit. That tells you the millions of fruits that we have here to feed the factory. This is the only farm that I've seen that people plant every day and harvest every single day. So we process everything. Then that comes to my next question. Oh, you process every day? Sure. How many people have you employed then? Okay, so we're just migrating onto our second shift. But for now we're around 75 for the first shift. But we're training for the second shift as well. So you see all that we have here which were grown from last year about maturing. And then they will be ready for processes. So we need more hands so we have more people coming to join us here. At least on the factory side. So on the farm, for the various farm sites, we are close to 800 as we speak. But you know there's a new development coming up and that means more hands coming on. So very soon we will hit the thousand mark on the farm. And it's so exciting that when I came here they are really empowering women. Sure. To see the female who was plowing the land. It shouldn't surprise you. The majority of our workforce here are actually women. We find the women more reliable, they are loyal and they are hardworking and all of that. We find that super. And so we have empowered them to be doing what we do here. One thing that you didn't say is that women know how to take care of things. Yes.  Yes. I can't forget that one. I can't forget that one. You can't forget that one. They take care of us here. Exactly. And they take the same, they use the same kind of care for the plants as well. And so we have empowered them. So out here you have women driving the tractors, plowing the land. Not just doing the manure work but we are empowering them to be doing some more. And we have women doing all of that. I mean creating jobs for over 700 people. Sure. That's for now. It means that when you guys came in here all these 700 people were on the street. No jobs. Sure. So basically yes. So you look at the workforce that we have here. Most were hanging around. There were even some who converted from being fishermen. I mean they are in here now as farmers or working on the farms. Wow. So that's what it is. A lot more also completed school. And you know the world was like hoping for them and they didn't even know what to do. So we had to bring them in here and train them to be doing value-added activities here. So we are empowering them. The youth were empowering the women. We are empowering everybody here. I passed here every single day. But I never knew that this is the story of the young men behind a confiduse right here. My brother. We have a confiduse here. We have a confiduse here. Hey. No, we don't have a confiduse. We say that we don't have a confiduse. But that's my answer. So what is your brand ambassador? My brand ambassador is a confiduse. Oh, the brand ambassador is a confiduse? A confiduse. Nice one. Before you confidused, what is your name? My name is Galamzee. My name is Qulamzee. You are Qulamzee? Yes. Hey. How are you? I am watching the show. I have been watching over the语. I don't know the language. I only know the language. Wow.  I am a partner. Yes, so you are a partner. Which is your name? The one in the field. My elder, Qulamzee. And his name is Galamzee. – Āngeakāsa  Hinterbi Byίel-nêm-máng Āngeakāsa  believer Ythenukается OĀngeakĀsa Āngeakāquesia ĀngeakĀsa ĀngeakĀsia KiĀrado muar ὚ᵃᵛᵃ ᶜᵗᵡᵛᴅᵗᵨ ᶠᵜᶇ ᶅᵛᵖ᷁ vuelta ᴜᵃᵗᴇᵇᵉ ᵘᶑᵉᵒᵥᶗᵈ  brack yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw yaw y 靈                                                                                kır 續  show now trade at god ma dhe go and wants to do some trading at say otwam doesn't have to go to the highway and come back to you just have to come through our pineapple road ), so we have we have many of these, it is part of their part of our development agenda to open up the place so it's not just for the farms there are many other communities that we are using our machinery to do the road for them. Aside the roads, we are also digging dams. So for example on this side, we have two major dams sitting out here to give us water and to give to the community in their time of need. Not just the dams, we have ten boreholes sitting here on this side. So that's what we do for all the sides. So for all the sides that we go to, you find dams as a source of water, you find the boreholes and then you find the roads. And then we are trying to stretch out into the communities as well. So we just be called and say there's a road here which is about normally when they say there's a major funeral here we need to work on our roads and then we take our machinery in there and then prepare the road for them. That's really incredible that you guys are touching lives in here. I know you guys are farming in commercial size but do you still outsource some of the farms? So we don't directly outsource. We have three planting schemes here. So first one is one that we do with the people in the communities. We call it a shed grower scheme. And that one is a very special arrangement where we acquire land and then put the cooperatives, we put them on the land and we give them everything they need to be farmers including stipends at the end of the month and all of that. This scheme produces a certain output. So at harvest, aside all the accoutrements that we've given them and the stipends and all of that at harvest we do a division into three. So one part goes to us. Another part goes to them as a group to share as they are share of the revenue. And then the third part goes for all the agronomic practices that we do here. But that is for the first scheme. For the second scheme is a totally independent people who want to grow for us. It is important that they contact us even before we start the land preparation because for us it is too important beginning from the land preparation. It has to be by our specification. I told you that this juice that we have is just a matter of squeezing. So we don't want to risk public health by just taking any fruits. So we have to be with you from point one. Grow with you so once you come into this scheme we put a supervisor to your team and he takes you from land preparation right to harvest. That is to be sure that it meets our specification because all that we're going to do on the factory floor is to take this pineapple, take it through extraction to take the juice, box the juice and it's out today. So it's important. So that's the second scheme. And the third scheme is what you see here. This is the company owned farms. So we have these three schemes out there for people to participate in this pineapple. So you can choose whoever wants to join us can choose any of these. So either you will come into the OS one which is the shared growers scheme or you do the independent one where we will support you with technical knowledge and all of that. And then this is what we are doing here. So we have these schemes out here to get people to use. Does it mean that I can also be a farmer for you? Sure. So there's a company. There's actually a company called Crop Estate. So what they have done is that they have an arrangement with us. That look here, we will operate in the fair scheme but we will have our own set of farmers. So they have also employed another professional farm company. And then they are inviting, I can call it investment but they are inviting people who want to do farm to work through them. So they will give you a portion of land but they are going to do all that for you for a revenue share with you. That's also a scheme where we are operating over here. And so as part of reaching out to the community in general so we see some of the farms that the communities have done. But interestingly, there's this educational institute here, John Evans Atamil Senior High School. So because this major farm is right opposite their school, they approach that and say we see you working out here every day. We also have land. What can you do for us? So we sat down with them, we went through all of that and now they have a school farm and this farm is a pineapple farm where there are expertise and all of that but they take care of the farm and so they also sell to the factory. So that's one of the schemes so they are making a lot of revenues from pineapple farming because the factory buys from them. I hope the money is for the student. We pay them. We pay them so that goes into it. It is a day school. So they need a lot of support in terms of transport, in terms of lunch and all of that. So we support the school and we also buy from them and pay the school. Fortunately our premium juice sits so well wherever we take it. So the demand is high and that gives us the impetus to keep going and going and going and going. Proudly we are the largest producer of pineapple in Ghana as we speak. We have to get the figures for West Africa and Africa as a whole. Then we put it together and see where we start but we are really huge. This is a huge farm. How do you irrigate? Thankfully pineapple is a tropical plant. It doesn't need so much water to do it. But it has its own nature. It easily converts dew to water. So you can see from here. In the evening the dew forms and stops here and then runs down as water. So you can see in the belly of the pineapple there is water that dispenses gradually to the ground. Now on the surface as you saw from the newly developed areas. There are these polygons we call it the mulch, the plastic mulch but these are biodegradable. So it goes off. I mean after the one year, one and a half years that the pineapple will stand here but the time we have to turn the soil this one is already gone. It's biodegradable. So what it does is that it lays on the ground and keeps the place moist. So this water standing here when it dispenses to the ground it doesn't lend itself too much to evaporation. It slows down the process of evaporation and also with the rubber it gives us the capillary action where does it rise from the ground it hits the rubber and goes back as water. So these are some of the technology we have we have put here to get us going but basically it makes its own water dispense down to help them to grow better. I want to ask you my final question. This is the raw material and you guys are like adding value to it. The whole fact with the 20 million fruits that you have before you convert them would you say the raw material is more profitable or after you add value obviously obviously obviously So I take these fruits and it costs maybe two cities maybe four cities but I process it by adding value I squeeze it if I can sell it more than I would have sold the raw fruit that's the first one the second one is that once I put it in a box I elongate its life span on the shelves for example so I harvest from here and it takes me a week max a week and a half I should consume this one but I take it to the factory it is squeezed, pasteurized and put in a box and it stays for one year so that's what value addition does to it you add value to it to increase the value and you add value to it to increase its life span doesn't mean you encourage more Africans to add value to the raw materials that we have instead of always exporting our raw materials so let me loosely call it a target that is our target we want to see every product coming from Africa going through at least one or two levels of processing to get it to one increased value to increase the life span too bad that we have to carry raw materials out there so if I'm carrying pineapples for example I'm just thinking I juice and I make just about 50% of my weight as my juice so if I carry all this whole fruit there I'm sending 100% of something that I would need only half of so that is even waste and whoever is buying it is also considering the waste factor and will factor it in the price that I will give him so he will have to give me low than I would ask for but if I process for example if I have processed and it's already juice and it's going out there watch your buying these juice there's no excuse about I have to also go and process and I have this one so give me at a lower value give me as a value of juice and this juice is premium not from concentrate this is no additives no sugar, no water zero additives I would love to see the factory would you take me there sure most welcome let's go to see what happens in the factory it's more like farm to factory sure sure because that is what happens from planting to maturity to day of harvest that is today and this process of harvesting triggers a process so from here it moves straight to the factory because in the factory we don't store anything it comes directly from the farm straight into the pool and production begins