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Sugarcane farmers who had hopes of cultivating to supply the Komenda Sugar factory have now been compelled to sell to producers of the local gin popularly known as Akpeteshie.

These sugarcane farmers invested heavily in their farms following strong encouragement and assurances from officials of the Komenda Sugar Factory that their produce would be bought.

However, months after their investment, they tell Citi News that they are very much frustrated by how the $35 million factory continues to be inactive while their sugar cane is wasted.

A farmer at Anto in the Shama District of the Western Region, John K. Mensah, owner of a 30-acre sugar cane farm noted that initially, they “were very happy as sugarcane farmers when the factory was set up.”

“Officials of the factory came to register over 54 of us, and said we should not sell it to ‘akpeteshie’ distillers, but now, look, we don’t know what to do with the sugarcane.”

The factory, at its full capacity, can, in a year, produce 97% of the nation’s sugar needs, representing 250,000 tons.

To produce such quantity of sugar, the factory requires 1,250 metric tons of raw sugar cane daily.

The sources of the sugarcane are the factory’s own farm, which is also yet to be operational, and sugarcane from private growers in the Central and Western Regions and even beyond.

Factory’s arrangement with farmers

Though authorities of the factory would not speak on the record to Citi News, they reveal that they registered over 500 farmers who have a total of over 30,000 acres of sugarcane farms.

The farmers were divided into four zones: the Shama Division, stretching from Beposo to Shama Junction in the Western Region, the Komenda Division in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Brem Municipality and the Cape Coast Division, consisting of farmers around Cape Coast and the Abura-Asebu Kwamankese District in the Central Region.

The last division, known as the Outer Division, has farmers who have solidly expressed willingness to sell to the factory. They are in the Volta Region, the Nzema area in the Western Region and the Assin Foso Area in the Central Region.

For these outer division farmers, officials tell Citi News if funds are made available, they will establish mini-sugarcane crushers in their respective areas to first crush the raw material, and the juice will then be conveyed to Komenda.

Back in 2016 when the factory functioned for a short time, some sugarcane was purchased from the farmers and payment was fully done.

Notwithstanding these efforts by the officials, they disclose that they lack vehicles to move around to monitor the farmers, and they depend on few officials that have private vehicles to do that.

Farmers cry further
A farmer from Kwahenkrom, near Komenda, Omankrado Nana Kweku Nkrumah, states his nostalgia for his sale of sugarcane to the factory back in 2016, but laments, “There was an agreement to give us loans to expand our farms, but we are now back to nothing, giving the sugar cane to ‘akpeteshie’ producers”.

According to him and other farmers, it was viable selling to the factory than to the ‘akpeteshie’ distillers because the factory could pay them in bulk while the latter have only rendered them impoverished.

He has appealed to the Akufo-Addo government to “eschew political handling of issues about the factory” saying “it is a great asset to the people of Komenda and Ghana at large.”