Opinion
After the collapse of the Northern Star Tomato Processing Factory, at Pwalugu in the Upper East Region, the country has not been able to establish a new one.
The Pwalugu Tomato Factory which was established by the first president of the Republic of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was to process raw tomato produced by farmers into tomato paste for the Ghanaian market.
The factory could not survive due to bad management and lack of raw materials, in this case, fresh tomatoes from farmers in the northern part of the country to run the factory.
Though Ghana is currently the second largest consumer of tomato paste in per capita terms, the paste is mostly imported.
Successive governments have tried to revive the only tomato factory in Ghana but to no avail. However, the country can now boast of a new tomato processing factory at Tema which will serve the local market and feed the neigbouring West and Central African countries too.
Even though the factory is privately owned by Conserveria Africana Ghana Limited, the country can still take pride in having a new tomato processing factory.
Owners of the tomato factory are the importers of Gino and Pomo brand of canned tomato paste.
Factory Capacity
The GH¢50 million facility which was inaugurated by President John Dramani Mahama recently has the capacity to produce in excess of 25000 metric tonnes which is almost 35 percent of the local consumption.
The factory is currently running at 100 percent full capacity and efficiently for 24 hours a day and six days a week.
Rajib Chattopadhyay, the Managing Director of Conserveria Africa Ghana Limited, in his address at the inauguration said, “We are the pioneers in bringing the most modern technology and a futuristic model of manufacturing with the state-of-the-art machinery from Europe and also the expertise to manufacture the highest of products locally”.
From inception till date, he said, the company has invested over GH¢50 million to ensure efficient production and has employed 300 Ghanaians.
More Investment
“We have a plan to invest further GH¢50m thereby doubling the capacity which would happen within the next two years and this would generate over 600 jobs.”
“We envisage that after we do so this, the facility will be able to process more than 60 per cent Ghanaian demand for tomato paste, a quantity that is currently being imported. All these efforts in replacement of imports would also translate into a forex saving of over $30 million per annum”, Mr. Chattopadhyay posited.
He said currently the company only imports concentrated tomato paste, cans and packages them for the Ghanaian market, stating the the company has a vision which includes a full backward integration for production of tomato paste.
“We therefore solicit support from our trade partners, investors and government to enable us work toward a feasible backward integration program in the medium to long term”, Mr. Chattopadhyay appealed.
Mr. Chattopadhyay said investing in complete backward integration will unlock the potential of forex savings and create a vast number of employment opportunities in agriculture, farm processing, repackaging along with many other downstream industries.
President Mahama in his remarks said the tomato processing factory will boost the attainment of government’s agenda for transformation…that is to transform the Ghanaian economy into an export led economy.
He said the investments into the tomato factory will help the country reduce the almost $100 million used in importing tomato paste every year.
“It will also reduce the amount of foreign exchange that we spend each year in importing items that we have the comparative advantage to produce in Ghana,” the President averred.
He asserted that Ghana has the comparative advantage of producing rice, sugar, tomatoes, poultry, fish, and vegetable oil locally indicating that “since last year we have seen some remarkable improvement in reducing the amount of imports of these products.”
President Mahama expressed appreciation for the company for the investment and assured them of continuous government support.
He also assured management of the factory and its investors that government would absolutely be a partner to increase local tomato production.
Revive Pwalugu Factory
The president encouraged the company to speak to the Ministry of Trade in order to collaborate and revive the Pwalugu Tomato Factory in the Upper East Region to create more jobs and produce more tomatoes for the Ghanaian market.
“It is my expectation that in few years, the company will be able to produce tomato paste using the locally produced tomato to satisfy the Ghanaian market and export to the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) countries as well”.
cephrok@yahoo.com
By Cephas Larbi
