GOIA to produce omega oil in Ghana

The GOIA, an international company in Mauritius, will in collaboration with Ocean Products (OPG) Limited establish a production unit in Tema, to produce omega-rich oil derivative, for the production of NESTLE infant food.

A statement signed by Mr Rex Dankwa, Executive Director of RICS Consult, copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, said OPG, already incorporated in Ghana as a Free Zone company will procure raw material for the production of the oil from Pioneer Food Cannery Limited, processor of tuna in Ghana.

The statement said the oil extraction would be through a ‘cold –extraction’ process, whereby tuna fish materials would be blended with water and through series of automatically controlled highly sophisticated equipment under hygienic conditions to produce semi crude oil.

It said: “this oil is rich in Omega-3, 5, and 6 and because of its high quality oil, the raw material will be converted within the same hour, necessitating a co-location of the supplier and processor and it must be within a 5-minute transfer.”

The statement said this is the first time this concept is being introduced in Ghana, but it already exist in Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan who export their produce to Nestle.

It said: “Officials of OPG and the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) discussed the specifications, factory layout and plan to achieve high quality product .

The statement said the company would need the approval of the GSA for the export of the oil, which must be referenced by the DG SANCO Office in Brussels in the European Union.”

The OPG Limited is expected to commence production by April, 2012 with a work force of about 20, and it would ship its extracted oil to Switzerland, where it would be refined by a subsidiary company, SOPHINOL, owned by Nestle.

The statement said: “Ghana should be extremely proud to be associated with such novel production, which would attract foreign investors to really put the nation on the map of ‘making a difference in the production baby foods in the world.”