An agronomist of the Komenda Sugar Factory, Emmanuel Abdomni, has debunked media reports that the factory cannot produce because of lack of raw materials.
According to him, the factory has taken delivery of enough canes and several orders have been placed by suppliers waiting for their turns to deliver.
He was speaking to captain Smart, Adom FM’s Morning Show host on Tuesday following recent negative media reports on the factory’s operations.
“I find the reportage very sad and worrying. Captain Smart, as you can see for yourself, the factory is working day and night and we expect our first sugar by Friday, 17th June, 2016.
“The factory has about 128 acres of cultivated sugar cane available to feed the crushers. However, these have been reserved as seed stock for out growers as far as Assin Fosu and Kasoa in the Central regions as well as other areas,” Abdomni noted.
Recently, the minority in Parliament held a news conference claiming among other things that the facility was shut down two days after commissioning. The NPP MPs also maintained that the plant’s economic viability was not well thought through because the factory does not have a guaranteed supply of raw materials.
But Mr Abdomni said the Minority’s assertion cannot be true. He said that there are 1,080 out growers who have been registered to supply the facility with sugarcane. Another 1,000 harvesters have been registered to go into the farms to help with harvesting.
The management is eyeing cultivating 180 acres as part of its plans to generate 40% of the raw materials needed.
He said the factory has been supplied with some 2000 tons of sugar cane from outlining towns for which the suppliers have been paid Ghc 1.5m. “I am very happy to see money being put into the pockets of these hardworking farmers,” he said.
The Agronomist’s view was corroborated by Captain Smart who reporting from Komenda said he was impressed with operations of the $35 million factory. “Honestly, everything is okay, everything is working,” he said.
