Gov't will assist VREL to revamp banana plantation - Aliu

Vice President Aliu Mahama, describing the destruction of the 240-hectare banana plantation of the Volta River Estate Limited (VREL) by a rainstorm as national disaster, on Tuesday assured the company of the full support of the government to revamp its operations.

Vice President Mahama, who toured the damaged plantations consequently, directed the ministers of Agriculture and Private Sector Development, who accompanied him and the Minister of Trade and Industry to meet with the representatives of VREL to work out a favourable and timely financial package for the Company.

He consoled the management and staff of the company over their losses, which, he said, was an act of nature, and urged them to cooperate to ensure that the best decisions were taken for the speedy revitalisation of their operations.

"This is indeed a huge loss, not only to you and your families, but to the nation and the economy at large. We sympathise with you and would fully help in any way possible. This plantation could be a gold mine too."

He urged the Company to save the jobs of its 600 employees, but VREL said they had to be laid off until replanting begins in the rainy season in March or April.

VREL has appealed to the government to grant it 500,000 dollars from the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) to facilitate the replanting of the bananas, which would take one-and-a-half years to fruit. It, however, requires one million dollars to replant.

Over the planting and maturity period, VREL would lose about 2.5 million dollars in export earnings.

Mr. Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Private Sector Development, said the company would be assisted under the EDIF because the loss was not caused by inefficiency and incompetence. It was an act of nature that could not be prevented, the minister said.

"The Company would be considered as a distressed one and be assisted accordingly from all possible sources of funding so that we minimise the impact of the disaster on workers and avoid adding to the unemployment rate, which is already high," he said.

Major (Rtd) Courage Quarshigah, Minister of Food and Agriculture, asked the management of the VREL to develop a comprehensive time action plan with revamping activities and their time frames clearly spelt out so that funds could be released to them in accordance with their priorities.

He advised the Company to plan a strategic security measure to forestall future disasters.

Mr Anthony Kofi Blay, Director of Agriculture, said the tragedy struck the Company at a time when it was poised to break through the European Market with its high-grade banana.

After a 10-year legal battle over export quotas, Mr Blay said, the Company last year emerged the victor and was granted an annual 2,000-tonne license free quota to export to the EU market, a challenge it was ready to meet with the expansion of its 300 hectares plantation to 500 hectares.

Three out of the four 300-hectare plantations were destroyed by a 35-minute storm.

Before the October 12 disaster, VREL was exporting 6,000 boxes (18 kilograms per box) a week, under a Fair Trade Partner Agreement with Max Havelaar Foundation of Holland, to the United Kingdom, Holland, Finland and Denmark.

With the crisis, it could only export 1,000 boxes a week from its Asutuare site, which was unaffected.

Mr Blay said the Company would take advantage of the situation to convert all its farms into an organic one, saying the prospects from that were brighter.

He said: "We would like to assure the government and the entire nation that we have not given up. We are in full view of the light at the end of the tunnel and the time to give up is past.

"The disaster came at a time when we had to overcome the major hurdles in our efforts to establish Ghana on the international banana map. We are positioning ourselves for growth with pursuance of the Golden Age Business. Our resolve has been shaken, but not broken. We will make it for the Ghanaian banana industry."

The Company has since its establishment in 1988 battled with several setbacks such as diseases of the crop, destruction of the plantations, funding and access to the export market, but this disaster is described as the worst.