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 it with tools in order to add value to its products 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 value-added price.
According to the farmers, before they were approached by Paninvest, there were only two buyers who determined the price of their primary products.
This, they said, demoralised many farmers who contracted loans to expand their farms, leading to some cutting down their palm trees for palm wine or cultivating other crops.
Speaking at a meeting with the farmers, chiefs and opinion leaders at Busua, the Country Director of Paninvest, Mr Samuel Martin Kyerematen, urged them 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 constitute the minute part of what the tree could be used for,” he said.
The Chief of Ahanta, Otumfuor Baidoo-Bonsu XV, for his part, thanked the company for the move to empower farmers to add value to their products.
He said farmers in the district were into large-scale palm plantation, adding “I can assure you that with your help, they would provide you all the quantity that you would require.”
However, he said it was sad that during the bumper harvest, prices of palm fruit fell and the producers were left with no option than to sell them to existing companies at give-away prices.
Otumfuor Baidoo-Bonsu 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 company to consider training some of the young ones to enable them to service the machines in case they developed faults.
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