6,000 acres of land needed for sugarcane cultivation – Trades Minister
Ghana’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen says the Komenda Sugar factory needs 6,000 acres of land to generate raw materials to be used for production.
Read full article Addressing chiefs and residents of the Komenda Traditional Area during the tour at the factory on Friday, Alan Kyerematen accused the NDC government of their inability to provide certain fundamental resources needed to cultivate raw materials despite putting up the facility.
Built at a cost of $35 million from an Indian Exim Bank facility, the Komenda factory was inaugurated by then President John Mahama in May 2016 to generate energy for its production activities and produce by-products such as molasses for the alcohol industry. However many challenges, including the unreliable supply of sugarcane for continuous processing after the preliminary test run, stifled its operations, leading to its closure weeks after its inauguration.
The Trade Minister indicated that the Komenda factory would have fully been operational and benefited the country immensely if an additional 5,000 acres of land was added to the 1,000 acres of land provided by the previous government.
“When the previous government decided to resurrect the operations of this factory, there were something fundamental needed to be put in place. You can’t have a factory that does not have a guaranteed raw material supply and that right from the beginning was going to affect the viability of the project,” Alan Kyerematen said.
He added, “this is a fully integrated plant form crushing to milling and to refinery, so under normal circumstances, if the technical considerations had been properly taken care of, this would have been fantastic.”
The Trade Minister explained, “as we speak now the land that is available for cultivation is less than 1,500 acres and we need a minimum of 6,000 acres to be able to provide the minimum quantity that can make this project viable in terms of full operational capacity.”
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that government has increased efforts at looking for a strategic investor to take over the Komenda Sugar Factory.
The Komenda Sugar Factory, set up to provide 7,300 direct and indirect jobs, remains shut two years after its inauguration.
Watch video below
