Abagna Salt Company to process mango juice and garden eggs

Ejura, (Ash), May 30, GNA - The N. Abagna Company, an iodated salt producing company, at Ejura, is to as from next year, add the processing and production of mango juice, canned garden eggs and an animal feed, known as salt link, to its production line.

Mr. Samuel Nsosakia Abagna, Managing Director of the company who announced this said, negotiations had already been completed for the delivery of machines and equipment, valued at 330,000 US dollars from Spain, for the mango juice and canned garden eggs production. Mr. Abagna announced this at the formal inauguration of the company and its five-member Board of Directors at Ejura at the weekend. The company, which was established in 1998 as an enterprise, but now transformed into a company, has since then been producing iodated salt.

It produces between 500 and 600 bags of iodated salt on the average per month, mainly for export to the West African sub-regional markets and the local market.

The Managing Director said with regards to machines for the production of the animal feed, the company planed to procure them either from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) or the Suame-Magazine in Kumasi, since they were manufactured locally. He said in view of the expansion drive of the industry, the company had acquired a three-acre land at Ejura to re-locate the current iodated salt processing factory and the installation of the new machines intended for the mango juice, canned garden eggs and animal feed production.

Mr. Abagna disclosed that mangoes and garden eggs were in abundance at Ejura but because of the lack of ready market and preservation technology, they were often left to go waste during the harvest season, hence the decision of the company to go into their preservation and marketing.

Mr. Adjei Yeboah, an official of the Kumasi Zonal Office of the Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC), commended the company for turning out quality products but advised them to improve upon their packaging to enable them to compete more favourably with other companies on the global market.

He also entreated the company to endeavour to always complete the export forms at the immigration office when exporting their products so as to enable the GEPC to capture data and statistics on their exports. In an address read for him, Nana Kwaku Sarfo II, chief of Ejura, lauded the initiative of Mr. Abagna for setting up the company at Ejura since it was offering job opportunities to many young people. Nana Sarfo assured the company of the readiness of the chiefs and elders of Ejura to assist them in their quest for expansion and sustenance of the company.