GGBL rewards farmers for producing raw materials for company

Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL) has rewarded deserving sorghum farmers and aggregators in the Upper East and Upper West regions at a recognition event held in Tamale.

GGBL has been using sorghum since 2008 in the production of its premium brands such as Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, Malta Guinness and Top malt.

The company also uses maize and cassava in its brewing processes as part of its local raw materials initiative to substitute imported raw material for locally produced ones, which also means to develop a strong sustainable supply chain and create employment for many Ghanaians within the chain.

Local materials

 The Managing Director of GGBL, Mr Francis Agbonlahor, said currently about 48 per cent of the raw materials GCBL used for production was secured locally.

 “As an international business, we have seen at first hand in our other businesses, especially in East Africa, how the right government policies can transform the local value chain. That is why I am pleased on the intervention by government on the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme which I am positive will transform both the agricultural and manufacturing industries.

“For such a laudable policy to succeed, all players need to change our thinking and actions. We cannot continue to do things the same way and expect the required transformation so government policies, agronomical practices and industrial practices and technologies must equate our ambition to transform”, he said.

GGBL commended

Delivering the keynote address, a Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Sagre Bambangi, applauded Guinness Ghana for its local raw material .

. He said, “As a government, we know and understand that majority of Ghanaian farmers are into subsistence farming. The ambition of our government is to significantly transform the agriculture sector and we need our farmers to start thinking and moving towards commercial farming to ensure that there is sustainable livelihood improvement in the lives of these farmers.”

Dr Bambangi said to ensure that this came to fruition, the appropriate policies must be developed and implemented.

“It is for this reason that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government developed the bespoke ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme which is expected to increase the production of maize by 30 per cent; rice by 49 per cent; soybean by 25 per cent; and sorghum by 28 per cent from current production levels,” he said.

Awards

A total of 10 categories were rewarded with Seidu Dinko and Banong-yeng Kyiwieh recognised for being the best farmers in the Upper East and Upper West regions respectively. They all took home motorcycles and assorted products from GGBL. Faranaya Limited, located in the Upper East Region, was recognised as the best aggregator. The company received a thresher worth GH¢22,000 to support its work with farmers and products from GGBL.