GOVT LOSES $9m A YEAR OVER COOKING OIL IMPORTS (PAGE 14)

THE government of Ghana loses about $9 million every year on 40,000 metric tonnes of vegetable oils brought into the country by foods and vegetable importers, according to a Unilever Ghana Limited research.
The research also found out that in March 2008 alone, the state lost $226,440 on imported vegetable oil.
This was made known by the Marketing Director of Unilever, Mr Prince Obeng, when he briefed Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism who were at the Tema factory of the company to ascertain problems related to the use of crude palm oil for the manufacture of refined vegetable oil in the country as a follow-up to their recent tour of some palm plantations.
Mr Obeng explained that some importers of refined vegetable oil adopted basic tricks of misrepresentation of figures and documents, false declaration at the port and re-routing of the imported goods.
He observed that the importers took advantage of the government and consumers because of the poor consumer protection systems in the country.
Mr Obeng said through underhand deals, the importers were able to reduce the prices of their goods to undercut products of local producers.
Showing members of the committee samples of the imported oils, Mr Obeng pointed out that most of them were saturated and, therefore, had health-related problems.
He said palm oil was the largest and strategic raw material for Unilever with 70 per cent of its turnover produced from it.
Mr Obeng, therefore, appealed to the committee to set in motion an investigative system to ensure that the inadequacies were checked to stop the practice of re-routing, false declaration and smuggling.
The Consumer Development Director of Unilever, Mr Kwaku Boateng, called on the government to consider setting up a palm oil Control Board to regulate quality, standard pricing and market behaviours of the product.
He said this could remove instances of glut of oil on plantations and be able to project and store oil in lean seasons.
Mr Boateng stated that Unilever had doubled its capacity in all departments, doubling production capacity and therefore gave the assurance that it could meet the entire demand of oil in the country.
The Chairman of the Select Committee, Mr J.B. Dankwa Adu, who led the team, said the committee was very concerned about the oil palm industry.
He said there were vast lands that could be cultivated to boost the oil palm sector for local industries to prevent importation of crude palm oil.
Mr Dankwa Adu urged Unilever to invest in the palm plantations to promote and sustain the sector to end the era of importation of refined vegetable oils.
He stated that when the committee visited the plantations, it was discovered that there was a glut on the farms and therefore called on the industries to make efforts to store the crude palm oil at the factory for use in the lean season.
The Select Committee members had earlier been briefed by the Chief Executive Officer of Unilever, Mr Charles Coffie, on the situation at the factory in Tema.
He commended them for visiting the factory even though they were on recess and promised to relate further with the committee to help solve problems in the sector.