The Ghana Soya Bean Farmers and Aggregators Association has disclosed that, the actual threat for local processors is the high cost of electricity.
The group revealed this in a petition to Parliament to demand the repeal or amendment of the export and import restriction of grains regulation to exclude soybeans importation.
Director of Administration of the Association, Abdul Hakeem Issah told Citi News in an interview in Accra on Wednesday that “some of the processing companies, they tell us in private that their major problem is the cost of electricity not the cost of soya bean because soya beans is an international commodity, and it increases based on the increases by of other variables.”
“They extract oil from the commodity and they export it. And those of them who sell it in Ghana, they sell with the international price. So as and when the commodity is increasing, the price of the oil is also increasing,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Soya Bean Farmers and Aggregators Association has called on the government to address the challenges of the first phase of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative to ensure the success of the new phase.