GRi Business, Economic & Finance 25 - 06 - 2002
Farmers to increase soyabean production
Accra (Greater Accra) 25 June 2002- The GSE-All Share Index, the key stock gauge of the Accra bourse, dipped on Monday on account of a 10-cedi loss by Produce Buying Company (PBC).
The Index, which had made impressive gains over the past several weeks, ended down by 2.45 points at 1,210.24 points. Traded volumes also dropped to 94,600 shares from 143,800 shares traded on Friday. On the broader market, there were two price changes - one up and one down.
PBC lost 100 cedis at 440 cedis while Super Paper Products Company gained two cedis at 372 cedis. Market capitalisation was down at 4,403.21 billion cedis from 4,407.07 billion cedis at the previous close. Change for the year was 26.60 per cent.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 361
AGC 18,800
ALW 4,000
BAT 924
CFAO 60
EIC 4,200
FML 1,616
GBL 900
GCB 3,217
GGL 910
HFC 955
MGL 251
MLC 250
MOGL 19,000
PAF 750
PBC 440 -10
PZ 1,620
SCB 20,901
SPPC 372 +2
SSB 3,700
SWL 285
UNIL 3,205
CMLT 437
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Farmers to increase soyabean production
Tamale (Northern Region) 25 June 2002- The Northern Region branch of the Soyabean Growers Association of Ghana, intends to produce 5,000 metric tonnes of soyabean this year as against 3,200 metric tonnes last year.
As a result, the association has gone into a partnership agreement through the Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC) with a German Company, Sea Chartering to supply it with a minimum of 3,000 metric of the crop this year.
Alhaji Hassan Abdall, Project Manager of the Association, announced this at a day's forum with the Executive Secretary of the GEPC, Mr Edward Collins Boateng in Tamale on Monday.
The forum was to offer the farmers the opportunity to discuss problems affecting soyabean production and suggest ways to enhance its production in the region. The farmers appealed to the GEPC to provide them with tractor services and improved seeds to increase production.
They asked the GEPC to provide them with warehouses to store their produce and means of transport to cart the crop to market centres. Mr Boateng said President John Agyekum Kufuor on his recent visit to Germany had discussions with soyabean buying companies to purchase soyabean from Ghana.
Mr Boateng assured the farmers that the GEPC would provide them with warehouses and means of transport and urged them to increase production to justify their request. The GEPC Executive Secretary said it was the intention of his outfit to make soyabean a second non-traditional exporting crop after cocoa in the country.
Mr Boateng said the lack of market for the crop should not be used to hinder the production of the crop since it has now become a world market crop. Mr H. Seshie, Managing Director of Pointer Limited, a soyabean exporting company in Accra and organiser of the farmers appealed to them to move away from peasant cultivation of the crop to large scale production.
He said Mostert Oilseeds of Holland and Sea Chartering of Germany were ready to purchase all soyabean produced in the country while Ghana Agro Food Company Limited has also placed an order for 1,500 metric tonnes. The Pointer Director said because of "mad cow" diseases in Europe most cattle owners were shifting from using meat to feed their animals to soyabean feeding.
He urged the district assemblies in the region to support the farmers with funds from the Poverty Alleviation Fund to sustain soyabean production. Alhaji Alhassan Imoro, who chaired the function, said the three Northern regions have the potential of leading in soyabean production and urged the farmers to take its cultivation seriously.
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