THE ARTISANAL Palm Oil Millers and Outgrowers Association is launching a digital technology into the palm oil industry to protect the industry.
This is to ensure authentic and healthy palm oil exportation for the global market.
The association has developed an app to enable consumers track the source of the palm oil and its producers before purchase and consumption to curb the menace of a chemical called Sudan IV, which are sometimes added to palm oil.
Sudan IV dye is used as an enhancer in palm oil despite the ban by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
Artisanal Palm Oil Millers and Outgrowers Association will launch the app today in Accra.
Prof. Kwabena Agyapong-Kodua will chair the programme with Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister for Communication, as special guest of honour.
Other invited guests are Hanan Abdul-Wahab – CEO for NAFCO, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, GEA, Frank Asiedu Bekoe, Director of Political Affairs at the Office of the Chief of Staff, and Mrs. Delese Mimi Darko, CEO of FDA amongst others.
The palm oil industry is going to adopt this digital approach to ensure players produce pure and hygienic palm oil to help Ghana meet the world market specification.
The industry is currently dominated by small scale producers who are responsible for the production of about sixty (60) per cent of the total palm oil production in the country, which is close to about a hundred and twenty thousand metric tonnes a year.
According to the President of the Association, Paul Amaning, the app, called the Artisanal Palm Oil, will help to sanitise the system.
He said, “It will allow customers to order palm oil from the comfort of their homes and have it delivered to them,” adding that it will also help customers verify the source of their palm oil with the aid of a QR code.
By Daniel Bampoe