Louis Dreyfus to build sugar refinery at Tema

Accra, Nov. 26, GNA - Louis Dreyfus Commodities (LD Commodities), commodity merchants and processors of agricultural products, will build a 60 million-dollar sugar refinery in Tema, the company said on Monday. Mr Sam Waley Cohen, Communications Director of LD Commodities told the Ghana News Agency in Accra that construction of the 250,000 tonnes per annum sugar refinery in the industrial area of Tema, along with LD Commodities' commercial and industrial expertise, would bring the technical know-how of sugar processing to Ghana.

The sugar refinery would also "provide employment to hundreds of skilled Ghanaians through the construction process and into production and will continue to grow and further develop for many years to come." Construction will begin next year and the first refined sugar is expected to roll off the production line in 2009, Mr Cohen, who is in Accra to finalise arrangements for the refinery said. LG Commodities said it was envisaged that the successful operation of the refinery would be "the founding cornerstone of a dynamic partnership between Ghana and LD Commodities that could most possibly result in further investments in the Ghanaian agri-industrial sector in the coming years".

"This substantial undertaking, together with the implied social and financial responsibilities, will deepen LD Commodities enduring commitment to Ghana, a country in which we have been working over the last 10 years, to serve its requirement in agricultural products." Louis Dreyfus Commodities, which is present in over 40 countries in the world, has merchandised and traded bulk commodities in international markets since 1851.

LD Commodities is ranked number one in world cotton merchandising and is one of the three largest producers of orange juice with a 15 percent share of the global market. The company is also a leader in the grains and oilseeds, sugar, coffee, rice, metals, freight and emerging financial trading markets.