CTHT - Technical and Horticultural Center of Tamatave (Spice and Fruit Factory)

CTHT - Technical and Horticultural Center of Tamatave (Spice and Fruit Factory)

We toured a Malagasy nursery and factory that makes jams, jellies, and juices from local produce and the factory also processes spices such as cloves, black and red pepper, vanilla and cinnamon

CTHT, a firm of agricultural commodities and food products imported and exported in Africa based in France and the French laboratory Vanalyse specialized analytical engineering, quality control, analysis, expertise, studies and research, carries out quality checks on the vanilla, spices (clove, pepper, pink pepper), essential oils and Cocoa (the region of Ambanja). Mobilized in all ports of Madagascar,  staff are also involved in the expertise of cargo and surveillance unloading of cargo for import.

As part of the project Ambatovy and with financial support from thePGRM (Support Program for Management of Mineral Resources), the CTHT is responsible for the implementation of the Centre de Formation Agricole de Tamatave. 

The Centre aims to offer by way of learning a conversion of populations affected by the project and create income-generating activities for people opened up. 

Training topics offered are: 

• market gardening, local farms are small, so there are many farmers that receive training on European standards that are required

• fruit trees 

• beekeeping, different types of honey, including vanilla favoured which is very good.

The factory

 First we visited the nursery.  

Stevia seeds are started here.  Planted one by one.  Madagascar is only allowed 3 kgs of seeds per shipment, which comes from Europe, and so they need to grow, then re-seed this, due to the limited amount of seeds that are allowed in.  Very labor intensive.

  

 This Stevia full grown.  Its leaves are much sweeter than table sugar, though they don't contain any sucrose or fructose, actually 10 times sweeter.  It's  the sweetener that is used in Coke Zero.  Madagascar is not yet aware of the demand that North America has on this product, as they are not aware of sweeteners or diet type ingredients.

There are over 45,000 various plants started here or fruits and spices

 A rain gauge.  The rain is measured daily, as this is very important to the growth of the plants.  In recent years, rain has not been consistent, therefore they need to monitor the rain, to determine how they water the plants.

 One of the lovely "air plants".  These are not planted in soil.  They grow attached to trees, etc.

 This particular tree is eaten by the locals and has high nutritional value

 Our group that took the tour

Our very knowledgeable tour guide at the factory that explained the processes of production and packaging for spices and jams for export

 Sacks of cloves for export.  Most of the cloves go to Germany

 Drying black pepper.  This particular blend has a "tail" on it, and is extremely aromatic.  This type of pepper is only grown in Madagascar.

 A closer look at the pepper

Fruit for juice 

 Once we were inside the production area, we needed to gown up!  The standards are set and enforced by France.

 The assembly line for packaging the jam

 The jam is sealed one by one.  Very labor intensive.  They put a lid on the container, seal it, stack them, one by one, then packaged them for shipment

 Here they are selecting the imperfect pepper seeds

 Hand packaging vanilla beans for shipment

 We're in front of red pepper seeds, ready for shipment.  Most of the product goes to Europe.

 A view from the upstairs.  Not a very big factory for what is actually processed and packaged.

 Separating shaved cinnamon for inspection, then production

Posing for the camera
A very good tour!