BOPP declares dividend of 73.40 cedis.

Inchaban (W/R), May 17, GNA - The Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP) on Tuesday declared a share dividend of 73.40 cedis amounting to 2.5 billion cedis for the 2004 financial year.

Mr Ishmael Yamson, the board chairman, said this at the first Annual General Meeting of the company at Inchaban near Sekondi. He said the company's profit after tax stood at 5.8 billion cedis and said the low performance was due to the outbreak of the leaf miner disease and the world market price fall of crude palm oil. Mr Yamson said erratic rainfall and a drop in the total palm fruits production of 79,191 metric tonnes representing a 13 per cent contributed to the low crop yield.

He said the company rehabilitated the science laboratory of the Benso Senior Secondary School at a cost of 100 million cedis. Mr Yamson said to reduce the company's over-dependence on crude palm oil, a one million dollar palm kernel oil mill is under construction and is expected to process about 3,000 metric tones of palm kernel oil per year.