Ghana’s largest food processor and exporter, Pioneer Food Cannery (PFC), has emphatically stated that it is not obliged by any contract to supply its fish-waste to the Ghana Protein Company Limited (GPCL), a fish-meal producer.

“It must be said that there has been no official commercial contract signed between PFC and Ghana Protein to date, except for a Letter of Intent used to facilitate this transaction from the very beginning (and which was never intended to be binding).

“PFC has under many repeated notifications informed Ghana Protein that once there is no obligation on volume agreement in the absence of an official contract, our company continues to exercise its independence of any limitations from their operations,” said Acting Head of Human Resources, PFC, Nana Yaw Amaka-Otchere.

He stated the company’s position at a press briefing in Accra to address the current stand-off between the two companies over the supply of fish-waste from PFC to GPCL ever since the former established its own fish-meal production facility, thereby stopping the supply to the latter.

He added that in accordance with fair-trading principles, PFC has served reasonable notice of half-a-year to Ghana Protein -- that “we will cease supplies because of the new development of mainstreaming our own fish-meal plant.”

PFC has for many years been informing its partners and stakeholders, including GPCL, Ghana Free Zones Board, Ministries of Food and Agriculture and Trade and Industry of its intention of either buying an already existing fish-meal production facility and building its own milling facility as part of its integrated expansion plans.

Mr. Amaka-Otchere said there was no point in time that PFC made a promise of perpetual continuous and uninterrupted supply of fish-waste to Ghana Protein.

“Even companies in a contractual relationship would not make such a promise which would make the supplier nothing but a slave of the purchaser.”

He further explained that when Ghana Protein decided to invest in the country, PFC was not involved in any of its decisions, much less becoming a sole supplier of fish offal as raw materials for its production processes.

It was some years after commencing business that PFC was approached by GPCL to buy supplies of fish offal because it was having problems securing raw materials from the open market.

Mr. Amaka-Otchere added that in a letter to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Ghana Protein said it is processing only 43 tonnes per day instead of the 360 tonnes installed capacity because it has been unable to secure the necessary raw materials from all the sources it was assured of, except PFC which is supplying 40% of the waste.

He argued that if the company cannot secure enough raw materials, “where and when did it suddenly become the case that PFC is engineering the demise of another company by its strategic decision to build for itself its own fish-meal plant as a genuine part of its vertical integration growth strategy?”

He stated that PFC made it clear that it is not the only tuna or fish production facility in operation in Ghana, and therefore the declaration by Ghana Protein that PFC is the sole supplier is merely a “comfort statement” and obviously “not exhaustive”.

The company, as a law-abiding one, has secured all the necessary prerequisites in terms of permits to operate its milling facility and looks forward to a successful commissioning and start of production soon, per its integrated expansion plans.