The Komenda Sugar Factory will need close to three hundred thousand (300.000.00) metric tonnes of sugar cane to be fully operational, a University of Cape Coast (UCC) research has said.
Disclosing the findings of the research titled, ‘Assessment of Sustainable Feedstock Supply to the Komenda Sugar Factory’ at a stakeholder’s forum, the Principal Investigator, Dr. David Oscar Yawson said the factory was nowhere near readiness to begin operations.
“If you look at our study you cannot even get ten percent (10%) of what the factory needs a day within the industrially recommended 40 mile radius,” he stated.
About $2million is being used to import close to 700.000.00 metric tonnes of sugar into the country. Decrying the phenomenon as unfortunate, Dr. Yawson stated per their findings the Komenda Sugar Factory has the capacity to meet the large demand of sugar domestically but that will require concerted government and stakeholders’ intervention to ensure there is enough materials to feed the factory to achieve its full potentials.
According to him, sugar was the fourth largest food commodity imported into the country in 2013.
Government last year disclosed that it intends leaving the running of the Komenda Sugar Factory and the cultivation of sugarcane to feed the factory in the hands of private investors.
The decision, according to the government was part of its agenda to revive the $35 million Indian Exim Bank facility that has been inactive since it was launched in May 2016.
The factory, when fully operational, could produce 97% of Ghana’s sugar requirement, while out grower sugarcane farmers, mostly in the Central and Western Regions, would also be gainfully employed.
Source: Ghana/StarrFMonline.com/103.5FM
