CCIFG organised an Agro-processing Conference

The conference was attended by 60 business executives in the agro and affiliated fields. Participants benefited from insightful information from leading experts and facilitators to the event, Cocoa Touton Processing Company Limited, Blue Skies, Kasapreko Company Ltd and Nurevas Food Ghana Limited. Welcoming the participants, the new President of the CCIFG Mr Celestino Alvarez Neira speaking on the relevance of the event stated that processing industries have had a prominent participating role in the industrialisation of large developed countries like France, and as such, with Ghana being a developing nation, the importance this growing industry can bring is indispensable. 

The first facilitator that followed was, John Drakes, General Manager of Nurevas Food Ghana Ltd. Mr Drakes elaborated on the equipment used by Nurevas saying the acquisition of the Food Safety System Certification (FSSC) demands a high standard in their production processes as the certification provides a framework for effectively managing food safety and quality responsibility. He added that, the company tries to source packaging and raw material (oils) locally for local brands. 

Following this, Paul Ayeh, General Manager of Operations at Touton took stage to give a presentation on the theme “local added value on the cocoa value chain”. Mr Ayeh discussed the processing, trading and tolling and sustainable initiatives through the introduction of Touton’s state of the art factory with the production stages of cocoa liquor which is also used in butter and cake. He also touched on the cocoa processing stages giving a clear distinction of the Red zone (cleaning and winnowing stages) and the white zone (processing stages). Moving to another sub-sector in the agro industry, the next presentation was then given by Mr Clarence Amenyah, International Business Development Director at Kasapreko Company Ltd. In his presentation, he talked about the sustainable production of herbal beverages through the use of solar energy. He mentioned to participants that the company continuously researches the use of natural herbs, fruit extracts to produce and develop products to meet the needs of consumers. He also elaborated on the technologies used in its manufacturing and bottling processes including company’s high speed production lines that enables the packaging of 135,000 bottles of products/hour. 

To conclude the presentations, was Blue Skies, represented by Alistair Djimatey, the PR and Foundation Manager. Mr Djamatey explained to participants the process undertaken at the company from processing of various fruits including pineapple, mango, pomegranate among others to export to over 15 major European retailers including Coop, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Monoprix, Aldi and Carrefour. He also touched on the importance of attracting new investments through quality products, targeting new markets and producing new products.

The Agro Processing Conference was held as part of CCIFGs effort to focus on Industrial Transformation from Agriculture in Ghana. The conference will be followed by a member-only visit to Kasapreko Company Ltd to have a first-hand experience on the impact being made.