The
operations of leading cocoa processing company, ADM Cocoa (Ghana) Limited are
badly hampered by shortages in electricity and gas supplies to power its processing
plant.
According
to Production Manager, John Scot Donkor, the company has been forced to
intermittently cease production as a result of difficulties in accessing
liquefied petroleum gas.
“When
ECG fails, we have to fall on our generators… since Saturday, we are down; we
are not producing because we don’t have gas. It is a big challenge”, he told visiting
members of the Agro Mindset Organisation at the KNUST.
ADM
Cocoa’s multi-million dollar processing plant at Kaase in Kumasi was opened in
2009 to provide semi-finished cocoa products from a single source. The plant has
the capacity to process over 30,000 metric tonnes of cocoa beans into cocoa
liquor for export.
The
site covers some 75,000 square meters and comprises a bean warehouse, a
processing plant and a finished goods warehouse.
Mr.
Scot Donkor lamented that resorting to fuel powered generators has increased
cost of production yet the company is unable to increase price at which it sells
to clients, which is negatively affecting profits margins.
The
ADM Cocoa is one of the most modern agricultural value chain processing plants
in Ghana, working with some of the most sophisticated equipment available in
the industry.
The
learning visit by the AgroMindset Organization was part of activities to
encourage more young people to take up careers within the agricultural value
chain.
“Such
learning visits help make the young people understand the fact that that
regardless of your academic background, in either engineering or ICT or
accountancy or any other field, you can still find space somewhere in the
agricultural value chain to apply your skill for the betterment of this sector
which is the driving force behind our economy”, said Joseph Opoku Gakpo, the immediate
past Vice-President of the organization.
He
however described as worrying government’s failure to resolve the energy crisis
to make gas and electricity available for the powering of industries.
“It’s
not all companies that have funds in buffer to continue absorbing higher cost
of operations resulting from increase in cost of power, nor would have the
money to continue keeping workers on their pay roll even in times of non
production. If this power crisis is not fixed, loss of industrial jobs could
become the order of the day, and I’m sure in other companies this is already
happening”, stated Mr. Gakpo.
He
called on government, the National Petroleum Authority, Electricity Company of
Ghana and other stakeholders to sit up in resolving the challenges with gas and
electricity supply in the country as soon as possible.
Story
by Kofi Adu Domfeh
No comments:
Post a Comment