Minister for Trade and Industry official visit

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Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr. Allan Kyeremanten, has paid an official working visit to the Avnash Industries Limited’s rice processing plant, West Africa’s largest rice processing plant, located at Nyakpala in the Northern region.

The visit which afforded him the opportunity to acquaint himself with the operations of the company was also aimed at interacting with management and staff of the company to understand the operations of the rice processing.

Expressing excitement about the operations of the Rice Mill during the tour, Mr. Kyeremanten assured the company of government support that will ensure sustainable production in the coming years. He commended Avnash for installing such a game changing facility which gives confidence to farmers as it provides a ready market for paddy rice.

The Rice Plant which has the capacity to convert 70% of the paddy rice into a full grain has provided direct employment to over 125 locally.

The plant with installed processing capacity of 500MT per day is the largest in West Africa but is currently underutilised at it operates at about 6percent of installed capacity. Currently, the plant sources paddy from about 2,000 farmer households and could be sourcing from some 13,860 farmer households at full capacity utilization thereby creating the needed jobs while nourishing the nation with our own wholesome home grown rice.

The Head of Northern Business of Avnash Industries Ghana Limited Mr. Ranjan Ghoshal explained that Avnash Avnash has worked with aggregators in the past but has currently employing other models to put the company directly in touch with farmers. “We have developed our own paddy procurement team under the leadership of a local manager and all field officers from the University of Development Studies who are continuously conducting community meetings, guiding farmers, meeting with chiefs and elders of towns and farming communities to engage more farmers in rice farming as we provide a ready market."

He indicated that as part its strategy, the company has a policy to organise “Farmers Meets” regularly to encourage rice farming and to constantly learn from the farmers and also share vital information with them.

He stated that farmers have been assured that Avnash is there to buy all their paddy at prevailing market prices. Since Avnash started paddy rice production, price of paddy has gone up from GhC0.85/kg to GhC1.75/ kg over the two production seasons.

"It is also a challenge for us as we have to process the paddy and sell the rice to our customers who are being served by global merchants. The selling price of processed rice again is not in our hands but decided by the market."

He complained of the influx of imported rice flooding the market especially those that are smuggled in pushing prices very low to unsustainable levels.

"But all these initiatives will not guarantee even 25% asset utilization considering our huge investment hence we are desperately looking forward for government support in various forms to boost rice production and sustain the operations of the mill ,"he said.

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