Jospong Group partners Komptech in US$ 33M deal to boost rice production

GHANA – The Jospong Group of Ghana (JGC), a diversified holding company has signed a 30-million-euro (US$33.1 million) agreement with the Austrian company Komptech in an initiative to increase rice production in Ghana.

The initiative, implemented by JGC, is part of an agro-industrial project integrating the production and processing of rice to meet domestic and export market needs.

According to Ecofin Agency, the agreement was reached on the sidelines of the opening of the Forum Ghana-Austria business meeting on April 26 in the capital Accra.

Komptech is a leading Austrian technology supplier of machinery and systems for the mechanical and mechanical-biological treatment of solid waste and the treatment of biomass as a renewable energy source.

As part of this new partnership, Komptech will provide the Ghanaian company with equipment and technology for the treatment of waste that will be produced along its milled rice production line.

The partnership comes after the recent partnership between Jospong Group with several Thai rice industry companies to develop an integrated rice farming scheme in a bid to increase rice production in the West African country.

The memorandum of understanding with Thai financial and technical partners was intended to create numerous infrastructures in the country aimed at strengthening the capacities of the rice sector for seeds, mechanization, and processing.

According to the Ministry for Food and Agriculture (MoFA), rice consumption in Ghana was 1.45 million tons (Mt) in 2020, an equivalent per capita consumption of about 45kg per annum.

Despite the high appetite, the country depends on up to 60% of imports to cover its rice consumption needs primarily from Thailand, Vietnam, and India.

Recently, the Ghanaian government has been devising measures to boost local rice production in a bid to reduce the country’s US$560 million annual rice import bill and its concomitant impact on cedi depreciation.

During the recent Dakar II Summit, the Ghanaian government reached a decision to set aside US$684 million for domestic rice production and processing as part of its pathways to self-sufficiency in the next five years.

in addition, the government committed to supporting private investors, among them the  Jospong Group of Companies following the call from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who tasked the Ministry of Agriculture and the private sector to go to any length to ensure self-sufficiency of rice in the country.

Therefore, the initiative by the Jospong Group is in line with the government’s effort to attain self-sufficiency in wheat.

According to the authorities, this collaboration should contribute to the creation of nearly 10,000 new jobs in the sector over time. 

It should be noted that as part of its rice project, JGC has undertaken to develop a rice field on an area of more than 40,000 hectares.

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