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Ghana needs palm oil regulatory
Board– Unilever Management
Tema, July 22, Ghanadot/GNA— Management of Unilever Ghana
Limited, has called for the establishment of an oil palm
regulatory Board towards the development of the oil palm
industry in the country.
Mr Kweku Boateng, the Customer Development Manager of
Unilever, who made the call, suggested that such a body
should be tasked to regulate the cultivation ,pricing and
quality of palm oil.
He was speaking to 12 members of the Parliamentary Select
Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism who paid a working
visit to the factory on Monday in Tema.
Mr Boateng said a regulatory Board could monitor activities
of palm oil importers adding that there was no need for the
importation of crude palm oil into the country as Ghana was
capable of producing enough quantity of the product for
local industries.
He said the oil palm industry in the country has improved
greatly over the past four years as the Benso Oil Palm
Plantation and the Twifo Oil Palm Plantations produced about
40,000 metric tonnes of palm oil annually.
Mr Boateng assured members of the committee that the oil
palm sector would be able to meet 60,000 metric tonnes of
the product needed annual by the local market.
Mr Prince Obeng, Marketing Director of Unilever, said the
country was losing about 9 million dollars annually as a
result of the importation of cooking oil.
He said a research carried out by Unilever, revealed that
368 containers of refined cooking oil were imported into the
country in March this year, and between 21,500 and 32,400
dollars were lost through non payment of duties, false
declaration and smuggling.
He said some importers reduced the price of their product
because they imported saturated oil into the country
labelled as crude oil palm, paying only 5 per cent import
duty instead of the 20 per cent.
Mr Obeng said oil palm plantations in the country were
collapsing gradually due to the activities of the importers
as consumers always purchased the cheaper products leading
to the factories not buying the plantations’ produce.
Mr Charles Cofie, Chief Executive Officer of Unilever, said
over 45,000 people nationwide depended on the products of
Unilever.
He said that the company has awarded 350 scholarships to
senior high school students, 87 under graduates and 18 post
graduates.
Mr Joseph B. Dankwa, chairman of the Committee and Member of
Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North constituency, said the
visit was to enable the group to understand operations of
the company to enable it to initiate measures to promote the
oil palm industry.
He promised that the Committee would convey the request of
Unilever to parliament and urged other companies to invite
parliamentary committees to their facilities to enable MPs
to formulate laws to improve the various sectors of the
economy.
GNA
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