Business
Expansion and Development of Cocoa Operations
Expansion and Development of Cocoa Operations.
About this update from Pacsco Limited
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 3896O Agriterra Ltd 19 September 2013 \n \n\nAgriterra Ltd / Ticker: AGTA / Index: AIM / Sector: Agriculture\n19 September 2013\nAgriterra Ltd ('Agriterra' or the 'Group')\nExpansion and Development of Cocoa Plantation & Cocoa Trading Update\n \nAgriterra Ltd, the AIM listed pan African agricultural company, is pleased to provide an update on the rapid development and expansion of its cocoa farming and trading operations in Sierra Leone, through its wholly owned subsidiary Tropical Farms Ltd ('TFL'), in line with Agriterra's strategy to build a vertically integrated pan-African agricultural group.\n \nPlantation - accelerated development to achieve large scale commercial production\n· Expansion of cocoa plantation located 35km south-east of Kenema through acquisition of adjacent 1,600 hectares of land suitable for cocoa production\n· Total plantation now 3,200 hectares - further progressing strategy of initiating large scale commercial cocoa production\n· 250,000 seedlings cultivated in TFL's 1.6 hectare fully-irrigated nursery now planted on 200 hectares of cleared land\n· 1,000 additional hectares of land to be cleared ahead of 2014 planting season - in excess of 750 hectares are expected to be planted by Q3 2014\n· New nursery ordered that will expand nursery coverage to 2.2 hectares with capacity for up to 1 million seedlings with full irrigation\n· Construction of administration offices and accommodation well progressed on plantation site - targeted for completion in December 2013\n· Infrastructure development programme in place for 2014 to further improve plantation infrastructure and access to Kenema, including roads and bridges\n· Negotiations advancing regarding the acquisition of a further 1,550 hectares adjacent to and south of the plantation\n \nCocoa trading - expanding buying capacity and securing supply & off-take\n· Buying infrastructure expanded through two new stores in Kono and Kailahun, in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone\n· Support infrastructure and logistics chain will be significantly strengthened through 2,000m2 warehouse and processing facility in Kenema, the centre of t...