Ghana Protein Turns To Mills

The row between the Ministry of Agriculture, the Pioneer Food Cannery (PFC) and the embattled Ghana Protein Company (GPL) has taken a new twist, with the company concluding that only President Atta Mills can stop the imminent collapse of GPL.

The company says its conviction stems from its loss of confidence in the mediatory role that the Ministry of Agriculture was supposedly playing in solving the impasse between PFC and GPL.

According to Anthony Adu-Nketia, head of administration, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, headed by Kwesi Ahwoi and other government officials, were allegedly deeply in bed with PFC, which is said to have set up a rival fish waste processing company to collapse GPL.

Referring to the Minister of Agriculture’s role, Mr. Adu-Nketia is convinced that the President is not being presented with the true picture of the situation by the minister. “We believe he is not telling the President the truth,” Mr. Adu-Nketia told DAILY GUIDE in a telephone conversation on Wednesday.

On April 25, 2012, the Management of GPL forwarded a petition signed by Fabrice Pizano, CEO of GPL, to the Presidency at the Castle in Osu, pointing out the complicity of the Minister of Agriculture in the alleged scheme to collapse the $5million investment of GPL.

“This is a challenge we are throwing to the Presidency and we are waiting for his response,” Mr. Adu-Nketia said.

In the letter to the Presidency, GPL stated, “Hon. Kwesi Ahwoi, the Minister of Agriculture, officials of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drugs Board (FDB) have brought our company to the verge of collapse. We therefore need your urgent intervention to save our investment, the jobs of our desperate employees and promote further foreign investment in Ghana.”

GPL’s difficulties started way back in 2010, when the PFC whose core business is tuna processing, stated its intention to start processing its own fish waste for the livestock and poultry industry.

This decision posed a serious threat to GPL’s operation as a fish waste processing factory that relies solely on raw materials from PFC.

According to Mr. Adu-Nketia, GPL was facilitated by the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) to set up shop in Ghana almost a decade ago.

Indeed, DAILY GUIDE gathered that there was a firm understanding between PFC and GPL under the auspices of the GIPC, that GPL would receive a lifelong supply of fish waste from PFC through its tuna processing operations, hence the decision of GPL to invest $5million in the processing plant located close to PFC in Tema.

GPL, which produces 360 tonnes of processed fish waste annually, feels betrayed by the decision of PFC to venture into its territory. According to GPL’s management, several distress calls had been made to the Ministry of Agriculture, including letters and meetings, however, all the calls had been largely ignored by the minister.

When confronted in the media recently for his alleged maltreatment of GPL, the minister retorted, “Why is the management of Ghana Protein running to government, I don’t know what they want from the government, this matter is a business to business affair”.

But Ghana Protein Company said the matter had gone beyond business to business because there was a direct official connivance.

“There is a deliberate official connivance to collapse a $5million investment. The minister and his deputy are complicit in this plan,” Adu-Nketia told DAILY GUIDE.

Critics fear that if GPL is squeezed out of its much-needed raw materials supply, leading to its eventual collapse, it would impact negatively on the investment image of Ghana. In fact Mr. Pizano has vowed to discourage any foreign investor he gets in contact with, if GPL was allowed to collapse.