COMPANY SUPPORTS PALM FRUIT PRODUCERS

Picture & Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Busua
PANINVEST Group, a Ghanaian-Italian bio-energy company has reached an agreement with palm-fruit producers in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region to provide them with tools to add value to their product for export.
Under the agreement, the farmers would be given machines at no cost to enable them to extract the palm-oil and sell to the company at a competitive and a value added price.
According to the farmers, before they were approached by Paninvest, there were only two buyers who determine the price of their primary products.
This they said had demoralized many farmers who had contracted loans to expand their farms and that some had started cutting down their palm tree for palm wine and to cultivate other crops.
Speaking at the meeting with the farmers, chiefs and opinion leaders at Busua also in the Ahanta West district, the Country Director, Mr Samuel Martin Kyerematen, urged the farmers not to be discouraged.
“I can assure you that every component of the palm tree is useful, but unfortunately, we only know the palm tree for oil, soup, soap, and palm wine which constituted the minute part of what the tree could be used for,” he said.
He explained that the company did not intend setting up a huge factory to buy the primary product from them to add value to it, but rather provide them with manual and generator powered machines to enable them add value to the product before selling it.
Mr Kyerematen said the generators that would be used in powering these machines were designed to would use the palm oil as fuel instead of any of the petroleum products.
He said at the moment, Paninvest had started producing the machines which would be ready in September, this year.
“At the moment, the only problem is that we have to create a data base to know exactly how many farmers in the district and their output, how many are located at a particular area to inform shipment of the machines into the country.”
He said they would also create jobs, empower the people, build schools and work on the community roads as part of their corporate social responsibilities to their host communities.
The country director said when production begins; Paninvest Group would build a storage facility at the Takoradi Port to store the product for onward shipment.
The Chief of Ahantas, Otumfuor Baidoo-Bonsu XV, in his remarks thanked the company for their move to empower farmers to add value to their products and also ready market.
He assured the company that farmers in the district were into large scale palm plantation, adding “I can assure that with your help they would provide you with what ever quantity you would require.”
The Chief of Ahantas said it was sad that, during the bumper harvest, the prices of the palm fruit fall and the producers were left with no option than to sell them to existing companies at giveaway prices.
Otumfuor Baidoo-Bonsu who is also a Member of Council of State said such situations demoralize the farmers, therefore, giving them the machines to extract the oil and help control the price during the peak season, the farmers would not feel cheated again.
He said with the value addition, the farmers would preserve the product during the bumper harvest to ensure that they had a fair bargain.
He also urged the companies to also consider training some of the young ones technically to enable them service the machines incase it develops fault.
The Ahanta Chief assured the investors that, he would do everything possible to ensure that the data of the farmers are created to inform their preparations for the farmers.