The Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Letsa has disclosed that, Agro-base Processing factories which are already operating in some districts of the region will not be given any competition from the government’s ‘one-district-one-factory’ policy.
The policy which forms part of the Akufo-Addo led administration’s national industrialization agenda, intends to establish a factory in each of the country’s 216 districts to add value to raw materials and also create jobs for the teeming youth.
However, Dr. Letsa, during a familiarization to Kingdom Premium Fruits Limited, a private Agro processing industry at Tafi, in the Afadjato South district, indicated that government does not intend setting up parallel factories in such districts to compete with the existing ones.
“Very soon we’ll start cutting sod for some of our factories but we believe that, where we have already existing establishments like this, it would be good not to compete with them but to partner them to expand their capacity,” he noted.
The Regional Minister also added that the government will liaise with the existing firms to identify and provide the needed support to enable them remain in operation.
Kingdom Premium Fruits, a subsidiary of the Kingdom Group Limited, produces a weekly average of 500 tonnes of Mango and Pineapple juice, using fruits from its sister company, the Volta Integrated Agriculture Development (VIAD), which cultivates several thousand acres of Mango and pineapple.
The company which began operations in 2007 operates a 2-unit production line in addition to a bottle producing unit and employs about 200 workers.
Dr. Felix Semavor, chairman of Kingdom group, told the Minister during a tour of the farm and factory last Thursday that, the production facility is currently operating below its capacity and called for governmental support to expand production.
He also hinted of plans to set up farmer-base associations across the region to engage in ‘out grower’ farming of mango and pineapple to feed the factory.