Gino tomato factory starts operations
Conserveria Africana Ghana Limited, importers of GINO and POMO tomato paste, has set up a GH¢50 million tomato processing factory at Tema to add value to the product.
The state-of-the-art factory with the capacity to produce 25,000 metric tonnes of tomato paste annually would create about 300 direct jobs.
Mr Rajib Chattopadhyay, the Managing Director of Conserveria Africana Ghana Limited, said the company planned to invest GH¢100 million into its operations in Ghana over a five-year period.
“We started with a dream to migrate from finished goods imports to a sustainable model of locally manufactured tomato paste right here in Ghana,” he said.
“We started our journey to fulfill this vision in 2012 with a budget outlay of over GH¢100 million over five years. Since then, we have already invested around GH₵50 million in building local capacities”.
He said the positive response they received from the first phase of investment had motivated them to go ahead with the execution of a balance outlay of GH¢50 million by 2017.
Mr Chattopadhyay noted that in the next five to 10 years the company would complete its backward integration thus ensuring that everything used in the factory was from Ghana.
He explained: “This will enable Ghana to not only meet its annual demand in excess of 70,000 metric tonnes of tomato paste, save more than $100 million in foreign exchange, but also give its farmers a sustainable means of livelihood and increase the employment opportunities across a broad range of primary and support industries in the region”.
The factory was commissioned by President John Dramani Mahama, who charged Conserveria Africana Ghana to liaise with the Ministry of Trade and Industries to revamp the defunct Pwalugu Tomato Factory.
President Mahama noted that the factory would help reduce over reliance of imported tomato paste and also create jobs.
Ghana is estimated to consume 100,000 metric tonnes of tomato paste annually at a cost of $100 million.
President Mahama reiterated his call on Ghanaians to consume made in Ghana goods so that local industries can produce more to boost Ghana’s transformation agenda of an export-led economy.
“I believe that this factory is going to boost the attainment of our agenda for transforming the Ghanaian economy into an export-led economy,” he said.
“It will also reduce the amount of foreign exchange that we spend each year on items that we have comparative advantage to produce in Ghana.”
“Government is investing in both the poultry sector and aquaculture sector in order to increase production… With fish, the investment we have made has seen an increase in aquaculture, from 5,000 tons to 30,000 and our intention is to increase that to a 100,000 tones by the year 2020,” the President said.
He assured the company of the Government’s unflinching support to ensure that the factory succeeded.
Source: GNA