The Ethiopian Spice Extraction Factory (ESEF) was initially founded in 1965, mainly by foreign investors. The Company was established to export Ethiopian red pepper to an American Company called Kalsec International. However, exporting red pepper to USA resulted in higher freight cost and other wastages due to bleaching and colour loss as exporting of the spice took about three months to arrive at the company's plant in kalamazoo, Michigan.

In March 1970, " Ethiopian Spice Extraction Share Company" was established by foreign and local shareholders with an initial capital of one million Ethiopian Birr. The company erected the plant primaryto extract Oleoresins from spices grown in Ethiopia for export market.

Upon establishment, the plant had a design capacity of 180 tons per

year which was confined to extracting Oleoresin Paprika from an indigenous variety of red pepper, locally called "Mareko Fana". The Oleoresin Produced was in a semi - finished (Crude) form and the entire product was exported to USA.

In 1975 the company was transfered to Public Enterprise. In 1984, a finishing section capable of separating the crude red peppers Oleoresin into Oleoresin Paprika (Sweet part) and Oleoresin Capsicum (the hot or pungent portion) was established. Since then, attempts to diversify the extraction of Oleoresins from different Spices have been made by the factory's researchers.From some of the Spice experimented with a prototype equipment, the factory started producing Oleoresin ginger and Oleoresin turmeric for the export market.

The Ethiopian Spice Extraction Factory (ESEF) was the only Oleoresin Producing and exporting company in Ethiopia for long period of time. Through its long years of experience, ESEF gained the good will of its customers by supplying a required quality of the product (mainly paprika Oleoresin). The factory exported its products to USA, Germany, Spain, Japan and Other spot markets.

Products

Currently, the factory is keeping on producing mainly Oleoresin of Paprika and Capsicum for export market. The factory also produces Oleoresin Turmeric and Oleoresin Ginger.

FACILITIES

Laboratory

The factory has a well equipped laboratory including

- UV Spectrophotometer

- Gas Chromatograph and

- high performance liquid chromatograph; which serve in quality controlling and research activities.

Work-shop
The factory's work-shop has an appropriate machineries and tools used in process equipment as well as vehicles maintenance purposes.

Warehouses
The factory has modern warehouse for raw-material storage, three other warehouses for chemicals, packing materials and byproduct storage and other two for spare parts and product storage purpose.

Production and Plant Capacity

The factory extracts mainly Oleoresin of Paprika from dried, deseeded and ground pods of indigenous red pepper using organic solvents, usually Hexane. The crude extract is treated with polar solvent to separate the colour

components (Oleoresin of Paprika) from the pungent fraction (Oleoresin of capsicum) and the solvents left in each fractions are recovered under distillation. Hence, the principal product of the factory is Oleoresin of Paprika, and Oleoresin of Capsicum is taken as a secondary product.

The plant has production capacity of 140 tons/year. The factory produces and sells spiced and grounded red pepper mainly to local customers. Besides, teh factory sells its by products, seeds and spent, to local customers.

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