Prez. Mahama inaugurates tomato processing factory

President John Dramani Mahama has appealed to Ghanaians to support the government’s initiative of transforming the economy into an export-led one.

He said the effort would reduce the country’s import dependency and retain the amount of foreign exchange spent each year on imports.

“Ghana has a comparative advantage of producing, hence the continuous expenditure of some $1.5 billion annually on importation of commodities such as rice, tomatoes, poultry, fish, vegetable oil, among others, could lead to stagnant economic growth,” President Mahama said.

President Mahama made the call when he inaugurated a multi-million dollar tomato processing and packaging factory in Tema yesterday.

The $50 million investment under the Conserveria Africana Group, importers of Gino and Pomo brand tomato puree, would see the products being packaged locally.

President Mahama said in the 2014 fiscal year, Ghana made inroads in reducing commodity import marginally.

He said local rice production increased by almost 60 per cent, while increased investments had been made on milling technologies to process locally produced rice into quality export commodity.

He said similar investments had been made in aquaculture, which had seen an increase from 5,000 tons to 30,000 tons over the years “and our intention is to increase it to 100,000 by 2020”.

While commending the company’s for setting up a packaging company in Ghana, President Mahama tasked them to source raw materials locally as a means of incorporating local content into its operations.

He indicated the government’s determination to revamp the defunct Pwalugu Tomato Factory and invited the management of Conserveria Africana to liaise with the Ministry of Trade and Industry on the possibility of resuscitating that factory.

Conserveria Africana

The Managing Director of Conserveria Africana, Mr Rajib Chattopadhyay, in an address, said the company in 2012 mooted the idea to process concentrated tomato puree in the country, on realising that its brands had performed marginally on the Ghanaian market.

He said the company planned to develop a sustainable raw material base by procuring from Ghanaian farmers in the next two years.

“We believe a local partnership could provide sustainable means of livelihood for farmers and further increase employment opportunities across the board,” Mr Chattopadhyay said.

He said given that Africa imported in excess of 500,000 metric tons of tomato puree annually from China and the United States, “we also see an opportunity to develop Africa-Africa trade using Ghana as an export base”.

“While we believe our capabilities in executing this task, we look forward to the relevant arms of the government and stakeholder bodies in helping us achieve this vision which could further propel the country’s industrialisation quest,” he added.

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