Producers of Frytol, Fortune rice hint on temporal shut down
Soap industry to be affected by Wilmar’s shutdown
The Food and Allied Workers Union have hinted on the possible shutdown of other manufacturing firms in the country if government does not reverse the discount on imports.
This comes after producers of Frytol and Fortune rice have announced a forthcoming closure over the harsh economic challenge it is facing.
General Secretary of FAWU, Ken Koomson says about 50,000 people risk losing their jobs if government does not follow through with the reversal of the benchmark policy.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews Koomson said, “From the plantation up to the plant (factory)
we have about 50,000. Now what you must understand is this: the by-product of the palm oil, the crude palm is a party substance, which is what we use for margarine.
“…It tells you that there is also an impact as far as the margarine plant and all the employees who work at the margarine plant are concerned. Also, the by-product of the crude palm is also used for the production of soap which means that Unilever and the African consumer and all those in that supply chain are going to be affected”.
Wilmar Africa in the statement, among other things, said, “there has been a huge increase in cheap imported products into the country. This has made it difficult for us to sell in the local market because imported oils from Asia are selling far cheaper than our product”.
The company made the announcement in a letter addressed to the Food and Allied Workers Association (FAWU).
The company also laments however the fact that Ivory Coast has set its prices very low due to the regulation of oil prices in their country, however this is affecting sales significantly.
“To make matters worse, our export market, which has been complementing our local sales, has also been hit by non-availability of vessels to transport the product to our main export market – Senegal due to the Covid situation. These compounded problems resulted in our worse sales in December 2021 and the low sales continuing into January 2022,” the statement added.
Ken Koomson also disclosed that the company has currently shut down after notifying the Union of its plans.
Producers of Frytol, Fortune rice hint on temporal shut down