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Regulation of the cultivation, price and quality of palm oil was a crucial intervention to ensure the sustainability of the oil palm sector in Ghana.
Therefore, the Ghana Oil Palm Development Association (OPDAG), under the auspices of the Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA), is poised to regulate the oil palm sector to help transform and boost the economy through trade.
The effort is expected to improve market access for workers in the palm oil value chain in producing districts, and would also ensure that finished products meet local and international market standards.
The OPDAG National Organizer, Mr. Paul Amaning, announced this during a national tour with oil palm farmers and processors in the Central Region to deliberate on ways to safeguard the oil palm plantation industry in the country to attract international markets.
“The license would help to expose the bad practitioners of the oil palm plantation to allow increasing the income of small farmers and processors to generate economic growth and jobs,” he said.
He noted that a substantial part of Ghana’s palm oil imports could be sourced locally from artisanal palm oil producers, if they met the quality requirements of both industrial users and palm oil exporters.
The National Organizer commissioned the participants to register their businesses to meet the required standards in order to improve trade and also provide jobs to reduce unemployment and increase the standard of living in the country.
“OPDAG, spokesperson for Ghana’s oil palm sector, is a private sector industry association with the aim of promoting the socially responsible, ecologically and economically sustainable production, value addition and trade of oil palm. in Ghana, ”he added.
OPDAG Central Regional President Aaron Sagoe applauded the government and license initiators for joining forces to protect the oil palm sector.
He explained that the license was good as it would serve as a guild for oil palm producers and farmers to ensure good palm oil manufacturing practices for higher sales locally and internationally.
Mr. Sagoe encouraged everyone to collaborate to follow the agenda for the improvement of the oil palm sector in the country. He said that a regulatory board could monitor the activities of palm oil importers, adding that there was no need to import crude palm oil into the country as Ghana was able to produce a sufficient quantity of products for local industries.
