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Players in the palm oil industry have called on Malaysian investors to tap into the country's favourable business environment and partner local firms to establish multinational enterprises that can cater for the rest of Africa.
At a business forum last Friday in Accra, government officials, manufacturers and traders asked the Malaysians to partner their counterparts to speed up Ghana’s transition period of becoming self-sufficient with the production of oil palm.
They explained that the two countries must start the partnership through institutional research, knowledge sharing, equipment manufacturing, strategic investment and technology transfer to accelerate the development of the industry.
The players include the President of the Oil Palm Development Association of Ghana (OPDAG), Samuel Avaala, and the Chief Executive of the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA), William Agyapong Quaittoo.
The Chief Commercial Officer at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI), Kofi Addo, said the partnership was to enable Ghana to learn from Malaysia's expertise in sustainable palm oil production to take advantage of the huge demand in Africa.
It was at the Malaysia Palm Oil Trade and Networking Programme organised by Malaysia Palm Oil Council (MPOC) with the aim to create an opportunity to strengthen the bonds between Malaysia and its partners in Africa. particularly in the palm oil industry.
The forum was attended by three of the big Malaysian firms which are into the production of oil palm, namely KLK Alami Commodities, Mac World Industries and Able Perfect.
Mr Avaala stated that Malaysian firms must rather focus on building partnerships that would enable them to reach the rest of Africa instead of expanding retail and distribution bases in the country.
“As a country, we are a net importer of palm oil. In fact, in Africa, it is only Cote d’Ivoire that are net exporters, the rest of the continent are importers of the commodity.
“In Ghana, our production is around 300,000 tonnes per annum and demand is 450,000 tonnes. And so, we have a deficit of 150,000 tonnes which require imports,” he said.
Mr Avaala explained that the country was in transition to become self-sufficient through the introduction of the Tree Crops Development Authority and other policies.
He said through the process the development of the industry was to ensure that agronomic practices, planting materials and processing were efficiently modernised to increase production.
“And so, what we are saying is that oil palm plantation takes three years before producing fruits and the first year of harvest is not even the biggest. The biggest harvest is between eight to 15 years.
“The project embarked upon by the TCDA would take up to 10 years to make Ghana self-sufficient. We will not be depending on importation of the commodity from Malaysia all the time and so, these businesses should find a way of partnering with us to help speed up the process of becoming self-sufficient,” he said.
He added that establishing in Ghana would not reduce the market share of the businesses in Malaysia because the whole of Africa was a net importer and consumption was believed to be 13 per cent of the entire global production.
Mr Quaittoo said Ghana had enough capacity and the structures to partner the Malaysian firms to penetrate the rest of the consumers in Africa.
“We have to play our part very well to attract these investors. We have the infrastructure, including roads and ports, with a huge market demand.
“Ghana’s socioeconomic environment also offers competitive advantage over its neighbours within the continent,” he said.
For his part, Mr Addo said Ghana should forge robust partnerships with nations possessing expertise in the oil palm industry to propel its growth and development.
The High Commissioner of Malaysia in Ghana, Syed Nauzer Idid, stated that palm oil was a crucial economic pillar for Malaysia, contributing significantly to its growth and to the livelihood of millions involved in its production and distribution.
