Dr. Owusu Akoto Afriyie and his team at the factory
GOVERNMENT HAS promised to help revamp the Mim Cashew & Agricultural Production Limited, a private agro-business entity under the Free Zones enterprises in the Ahafo Region.
Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, who gave the assurance, was on a working visit to the factory as part of his tour of Ahafo Region.
He was also there to acquaint himself with how the company was operating and challenges it was going through.
The one-time vibrant cashew processing industry which has now added sugarcane production to its business could employ more workers with Government’s assistance.
Conducting the minister around the factory, the Human Resource Manager in charge of administration, Jemima Akusika Hansen, said the company used to have about 1,000 workers but due to production challenges, the workforce was reduced to 250 in 2017 and now only has 90 workers. She said the company could not sustain production due to high tariffs and so was happy government has shown interest to support it to come up again.
She added that the company was competing with companies from Vietnam and Indian on the international market saying cashew production and processing was capital intensive. ‘Production cost is so high and we couldn’t maintain production, she noted
The mister also inspected the 750,000 acres of the company’s cashew plantation and 50 acres of sugarcane plantation.
Dr. Osei Akoto Afriyie assured the company and the workers that with the implementation of Tree Crop Development Authority; the government was going to put in place measures to improve cashew production by of regulation, pricing, quality control and seed improvement, among others, to ensure efficiency.
The minister and his entourage also later visited maize farms and oil palm plantation of Kenyasi camp prison and was impressed about extent of maize production by the prisoners
He encouraged the officers and inmates to do more and diversify into other crops. He furthermore visited rice farmers at Atomsum, also in Ahafo region, and promised government plans to support them with technical inputs.
FROM Daniel Y Dayee, Mim