SA business delegation visit Freezones enclave

The high-powered business delegation had paid a working visit to the country’s Freezones area in Tema to acquaint themselves of the opportunities in investing in the enclave.

The visit took them to the Gold Recovery Ghana Limited, a gold company that buys waste from gold mining areas, from which it recovers gold for sale; Cosmo, a fish processing company under construction and Crown Cans Ghana, a can manufacturing company.

The delegation took time to see the facilities and were given the opportunity to make enquiries about the positive impact the operations at the enclave had impacted their businesses.

At the Gold Recovery Ghana Limited, Mr R.P. Smith took the delegates round and told them that investment in the Freezenoes areas had not been a waste.

Later, he told the Graphic Business that the investment by the company was US$2 million but in a month, the company is able to generate about US$500,000.

At Cargill Ghana Limited, a major cocoa processing company, the Operations Manager, Business Unit of Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate, Mr Wouter Evers, indicated to the  paper the company’s intentions to process more of the country’s cocoa on the grounds that it gets some more incentives from the government.

Presently, the company processes between seven and eight per cent of the country’s cocoa but had the capacity to do more.

In the near future, Ghana plans to process more than 60 per cent of the cocoa it exports to the rest of the world but the process has been slow towards the attainment of that goal.

Cargill has been sourcing cocoa from Ghana for over 40 years, and in 2007 constructed a state-of-the-art cocoa processing facility.

In the area of investments, Cargill launched a four-year commitment to cocoa-farmer training aimed at reaching 15,000 farmers in 2012.

Cargill announced a three-year US $5 million commitment to support sustainable cocoa in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in 2010.

Cargill officially opened its world class cocoa processing facility with an annual processing capacity of 65,000 metric tonnes and a potential to expand to 120,000 metric tonnes in 2008.

Cargill started construction of its new US $100 million state-of-the-art cocoa processing facility in Tema in 2007.

By Charles Benoni Okine/Graphic Business/Ghana