SNV to facilitate honey making business in the Volta Region

Ho, Aug. 13, GNA - The Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), is to facilitate beekeeping for honey as a viable business in the Volta Region.

Besides the new technologies to be introduced in the production process, SNV has developed a marketing scheme to effectively link up production.

Ms Cassandra Okudzeto, Advisor of SNV, was speaking at a meeting in Ho to discuss a baseline study by the NSV in collaboration with the Evangelical Presbyterian University College (EPUC) on the potentials of beekeeping in the Volta Region. Fifty people attended the meeting held under the theme; "Stimulating Business Orientation in the Beekeeping Sector". Ms Okudzeto said SNV would develop proposals and business plans for Beekeepers to increase production and also link them up to financing options.

She said local honey producers must package and brand their produce to increase patronage locally and attract foreign consumers in a big way.

Ms Okudzeto said Ghana currently consumed 340 metric tonnes of honey annually, 300 metric tonnes of which was produced locally while the 40 metric tonnes shortfall was imported.

She listed inconsistency in the quality, limited co-operation between stakeholders, lack of business management skills, difficulty in accessing volumes, access to capital and lack of reliable data on production and supply as some of the constraints facing the industry. Mr John Dogbe, Lecturer at EPUC, said Volta Region was geographically well placed to use honey production as a principal source of alleviating poverty.

He said, besides the economic benefits, the honey industry helped in biodiversity and environmental conservation. Mr Dogbe said, in spite of promising prospects of the sector, many bee producers did it as a pastime and not as a business. Mr Dick Commandeur, Eastern Portfolio Co-ordinator, SNV, said his organization would ensure that the sector moved from subsistence level into a viable business sector.

Participants appealed to support-agencies to establish an institution to train bee keepers as was

done in some advanced countries.

Gross profit of SPPC decreased by over 50 percent

Accra, Aug. 13, GNA - The gross profit of Super Paper Products Company (SPPC) Limited, decreased from 884,231 Ghana cedis in the year 2007 to 143,782 Ghana cedis in 2008.

Gross revenue also dropped from 3,096,382 Ghana cedis to 3,008,861 Ghana cedis in the year under review.

Mr Seth K. Anatsui, Chairman of the Boar d of Directors, disclosed this at the company's Annual General Meeting in Accra on Thursday. He said in the first quarter, one of the boilers was damaged and had to be replaced, causing the loss of production during the year, consequently impacting sales.

Mr Anatsui however noted that during the second quarter of the year, production and sales stabilized and in October, it witnessed the highest production of the past five years of 42,000 cartons. He said the devaluation of the dollar against the euro forced management to defer order confirmation of the finishing line to this year, since the Rights Issue money was not enough to purchase the machinery.

Mr Anatsui expressed the hope that with the adoption of prudent measures like conversion of boiler fuel from residual fuel oil to gas early this year, a substantial annual savings of 180,000 Ghana cedis would be realized. No dividend was declared. 13 Aug. 09