Olam to invest $31.5m in Ghana wheat mill

Global agricultural products supply chain management and food products company, Olam says it will invest $31.5 million to establish a wheat mill in Ghana.

A report by Channel NewsAsia says the wheat mill will be situated in Ghana’s main port city of Tema.

Olam, which is headquartered in Singapore, expects to start building the 500 metric tonne per day mill in March 2010 and actual operation will start by September 2011. It aims to achieve 115,000 metric tonnes in annual production in the first three years, the report says.

Ghana, according to Olam is a large market for wheat flour in West Africa. Ghana consumes about 270,000 tonnes of flour annually, it added.

Olam, the report indicated also said wheat milling is an attractive opportunity because consumption is expected to increase by 7.5%  per annum over the next five years.

When established, Olam will be the third flour mill in Ghana. There are already in existence, the Takoradi Flour Mill and Irani Brothers Ltd.

While wheat is not grown in Ghana, bread made from wheat is a very big part of Ghanaian diet.

When ghanabusinessnews.com made phone calls to Olam’s office Friday morning for more details, the phone was not answered.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi