Ohene-Konadu (5th from right) in a pose with officials of Petersfield & Rey at the company’s offices
Petersfield & Rey Group Limited and CASA de Ropa, two companies operating under government’s One-District-One- Factory (1D1F) initiative, have commenced production.
The two companies are operating from two different districts.
While Petersfield & Rey Group Limited is operating from Ataabadze in the Komenda-Edna-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) Municipality and producing Reydrops natural mineral water, soft drinks and pure natural fruits (pineapple, watermelon and mixed fruits with ginger), CASA de Ropa is operating from Gomoa Bewadze in the Gomoa West District of the Central Region.
CASA de Ropa uses sweet potato as its raw material to produce sugar-free nutritious bread and other mouth-watering tasty pastries.
This came to the fore when the National Coordinator for 1D1F, Gifty Ohene-Konadu, on Wednesday toured the two companies to assess the level of progress of the companies and the challenges confronting them.
At Petersfield & Rey Group Limited, Mrs. Ohene-Konadu was taken round the production site where a bottled water producing plant and another producing soft drinks and pure natural fruit juice were operational.
She also inspected another facility that produces sachet water.
Petersfield & Rey Group, which entered the local market with Reydrops natural mineral water, is currently doing test runs on its soft drinks and pure natural fruit juice production line.
She was confident by end of March, 2019, Ghanaians will start enjoying pure natural fruit juice from the company.
The company has its own farmlands of about 206 acres.
She recounted some support the government under the 1D1F initiative has been giving to the company.
Key among them are GH?6.75million loan facility secured from the EXIM Bank and the release of extension officers by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to train the farmers on best agronomic practices and the types of seedlings to plant.
At Gomoa Bewadze, Mrs. Ohene-Konadu was taken round the production site of CASA de Ropa by its Chief Executive Officer, Ebenezer Obeng Baffoe, the Technical Manager, Tony Dawson-Amoah and Programs & Innovation Manager, Joseph Okyere.
The company has two facilities – a test-run center which is currently producing in smaller quantities and the main production site which is about 85% complete and only awaiting to be roofed and get connected to the national grid.
Installation of its plant machinery is also yet to be done but officials of the company say all the machinery needed to run the company have been procured and warehoused.
Mrs. Ohene-Konadu was also taken round the company’s 760-acre farmland which is being developed with modern irrigation facilities and three dams to harvest rain water.
The company currently employs 154 people and hopes to engage about 1004 people when it goes into full production.
It has also engaged 450 farmers who are cultivating the land to produce the raw materials to feed the company.
Mr. Baffoe thanked government for assisting his outfit to secure a loan facility worth GH?14 million from the EXIM Bank to enable them put up the GH?20 million facility.