1. Product Description: Safety matches are house old consumer items of daily use in both urban and rural areas. They are used to light fire for cooking and heating.
2. Rationale: When establishing industrial enterprises was the principal responsibility of the State, a safety match project was planned to be established in Bahir Dar. The main reason was that the raw material soft wood is found in the western parts of the Amhara Region. While it is possible to produce matches economically home, the country still imports matches- draining its foreign exchange resources. The Amhara Region must revive the safety match project and promote it so that investors take up the project and implement it.
3. Market Potential: Annual import of safety matches into the country is in million of boxes gross. This volume will increase in the future. The current market potential for safety matches can easily sustain the viability of a medium size safety match making factory.
4. Source of Raw Material: Matches are unique products because to use them one has to use their packaging material- the boxes. The raw materials for matches are not only what constitute the matches but also the boxes. Hence the main raw materials for matches are wooden splints and the combustible chemical for the matches and kraft paper, glues and chemical for boxes.
The wooden splints will be produced from forest resources of the Region, the kraft paper may be bought from other parts of the country and the chemicals will be imported.
5. Production Process & Technology: Matches to be made from wooden splints follow the following processes of manufacturing. Lumber is cut and splitted to make splints. Match is made by feeding of suitable polished splints into the splints selecting and feeding machine. Match boxes are prepared by a paper box making machine or manually. The matches are filled into the box by an automatic filling machine or manually. A chemical coating machine applies chemicals to the match boxes.
6. Estimated Investment: For a plant which will produce 1,296,000 boxes of safety matches, total investment will be about Birr 600,000 of which Birr 200,000 will be for buildings and Birr 400,000 will be for plant and machinery.
7. Benefits: saving of foreign exchange resources to the country, resource flow to the Region if product is distributed to other parts of the country, development of new skills, transfer of the technology because the plant will be the first in the country, plus the other common benefits.
8. Location: Kosso Ber, Dangila or Bahir Dar