The President of the Association of Ghana Industry (AGI), Dr Kwesi Humphrey Ayim Darke, led a delegation, including executive members of the Association and CEOs of key companies, paid a courtesy call on the newly-appointed Minister of Food and Agriculture, Hon Dr Bryan Acheampong, at the Ministry.

The agenda of the meeting was to congratulate the Minister on his appointment and pledge the support of the Association for him.

The President of the Association indicated that the Government's agenda of transforming the economy through industrialisation to create employment and wealth required that agriculture and industry be linked up.

He said that was necessary "because the agriculture sector feeds industry with raw materials and the manufacturing industry adds value to them to achieve economic success."

The AGI president said the two sectors are key to the economy and complementary to each other, "and that is why AGI is knocking on the door of the ministry this early to play a part in the strategic planning of the new team in place."

Dr. Ayim Darke said the association deliberately and carefully selected some key member companies for this visit, including Guinness Ghana, Fan Milk, Benso, and Nestle, whose production processes traverse the agriculture value chain and were willing and committed to collaborating with the ministry to develop projects and programmes that would transform agriculture and industry.

He said with such a partnership and the right policies and support, industry would channel its resources into helping to produce major raw materials to replace those currently being imported

For his part, the Minister expressed appreciation to the AGI and Team for the move to visit him to deliberate on the strategy to move the country forward through agriculture and manufacturing.

He said his team had already developed an Industry Raw Material Substitution Strategy to deliberately and vigorously support the local production of critical raw materials used by industry, which are usually imported.

Dr. Akyeampong said, "we want to grow the agricultural sector to feed industry to achieve the national targets of sustainable food security, promotion of exports and industrialisation.

"My office will initiate series of meetings with you and stakeholders to develop a clear agenda and pathways for agriculture and industry success."

AGI members who accompanied the delegation included Dr. James Asare-Adjei,, Past President of the AGI; Mr. Seth Twum-Akwaboah, CEO of AGI; Mr. Agyeman Manu, Agri-business Sector Chair; Ziobeieton Yeo, Managing Director of Fanmilk Ghana; Mr. Samuel Avaala Awonnea, Executive Director & General Manager, Benso Oil Plantation Limited, Mrs. Aseye Nutsukpui, Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs Manager of Guinness Ghana