GHANA –Premium Foods Limited, supplier of blended fortified and non-fortified food products in Ghana, has cut ribbon to it new factory operating under the government’s 1-District-1-Factory initiative (1D1F).
Over the years, Premium Foods has been the main supplier to global organizations, including international relief organizations, and multinational food and beverage manufacturing companies across Africa, such as the “Feed the Future” programme, under the US Government’s Global Hunger & Food Security Initiative.
The new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility has the capacity to blend over 96,000 metric tonnes annually of maize, soybean, sorghum and millet.
“I am pleased to learn that this new factory is generating some one hundred and twenty (120) new jobs, made up of technical and management professionals, and is creating thousands of indirect income earning opportunities for farmers and out-growers along the value chain, mostly women and youth, in all parts of the country,” President of Ghana Akufo-Addo said.
President Akufo-Addo commended the collaboration between the World Food Programme (WFP), the Canadian High Commission in Ghana, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the African Development Bank (AfDB), Department for International Development (DFID), the J.A Kufuor Foundation, as well as local participating financial institutions for providing both technical and financial support to this project.
In other related news, the government has announced that the watermelon processing juice factory being established in Walewale, North Eastern of the country is 90% complete.
The processing facility, constructed at a cost of GH¢36 million (US$6m) is being established under the 1D1F initiative and financed by the Ghana EXIM Bank.
The state-of-the-art factory will be equipped with a PET line and have an installed processing capacity of 10 metric tonnes of watermelons per hour.
Full operationalization of the factory has been deferred to March 2022 and it will be managed by Champion Foods and Beverages Limited, a wholly owned Ghanaian beverage manufacturing, distribution and marketing company.
Upon completion, the company will create direct employment opportunities for 300 Ghanaians and over 2,000 indirect workers, including farmers and aggregators, to be engaged in an out-grower scheme, covering parts of North East, Northern and other regions of the country.
Meanwhile the Tamanaa Company, a rice farming and processing company operating under the 1D1F initiative has expanded its capacity, adding 250-metric ton per day of rice milling, to its already existing 40 metric ton per day plant.
So far, some 148 workers have been employed, with the company generating a turnover of some US$1.5 million annually.
Tamanaa markets 60% of its rice as parboiled and the remaining 40% as non-parboiled under the brand name Nasia Star Rice.
The company also engages over 4,000 rice farmers and aggregators operating in the West Mamprusi, East Mamprusi, Savulugu, Nanton and Mamprugu-Moagduri Districts.