Our trip to AZ Granata Juice Plant

Again it was a grey rainy day, like all before, when we headed out to Az Granata Juice factory in Agsu, Azerbaijan. We were supposed to get there in two hours, but we ended sitting in the bus for four and a half hours. No biggie, we had crisps and soda. 

The plant occupies a large 8,8 ha territory.  The working area is around 55 000 square meters. For meeting the plant’s demand for water 6 artesian wells have been put into commission. Every day the plant is supplied with 700- 800 tones of water via artesian. Furthermore, there is 1000 ton of water supply and water filter capable of processing 40 tons of water per hour at the plant. 

The plant consists of juice and wine workshops, 5-storey administrative building and 3-storey hotel having 13 rooms for guests. Production departments of the plant consist of the divisions for fruit receiving, fruit processing, concentrates preparation, wine making and keeping, wine packaging, alcohol production, aseptic storage, glass filling and packaging, tetra-pak filling and packaging. The plant which is able to produce 12 tons fruit juice and 3 tons of wine per hour, is able to receive 20 tons of fruit per hour. Its annual producing capacity is 50000 tons of fruit or 65 million of conditional packaging. The plant’s fruit receiving workshop is suitable for grape, pomegranae, apple, pear and quince assortments. The following stages such as fruit receiving, washing, sorting, removing needless micro organisms, storing in the aseptic tanks, condensing and filling aseptic tank are implemented at the plant.

The plant which is supplied with the equipment from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria and France, has also a warehouse for 2 million liters of finished products. Moreover, all analyses concerning the chemical and micro-biological composition of the product, its taste, smell, appearance and suitability for selling were conducted at the plant’s laboratory, and hygienic standards of the products are ensured. There are only 4 packaging lines for 3 fruit juice and 1 wine at the plant supplied with the state-of-theart and modern technologies.