Asare Odometa Plantations Limited - Ghana

Asare Odometa Plantations Limited (AOPL) was set up to produce high quality agricultural products in a sustainable manner while upholding the highest safety, health and environmental practices and building on the vast experience of its Managing Director in oil palm cultivation and plantation management.
AOPL's key objective is to promote cultivation of oil palm in the Upper Manya Krobo district with the view of creating a sustainable supply of palm fruits to the company for the production of clean palm oil targeted at domestic consumption. AOPL is constructing a laboratory on mill site to test for moisture, free fatty acids and dirt. This is to ensure a consistent good quality of palm oil is sold to consumers.
To effectively promote oil palm cultivation in the area, AOPL recently  

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played a pivotal role in securing a term loan of GHc 531,630 to support 98 out growers to cultivate 300 ha of oil palm in the Krobo area over a three year period. Funding was obtained from the Out grower Value chain Fund (OVCF) - a collaboration between Ghana Government and KfW (German Development Corporation). The three parties under the financing arrangement are:
• AOPL (Technical Operator) to provide technical services to out growers.
• Upper Manya Kro Rural Bank (UMKRB) to provide financial services and
• Klo Oil Palm Out growers Association (KOPOA) to sell palm fruits to AOPL.
AOPL also successfully obtained from the same source a seven year loan of GHc 450,000 to install a fully mechanized mill.
For a successful implementation of this out grower scheme, the farmers will require adequate training on oil palm pest and disease control, good agricultural practices and bush fire prevention. In house training by AOPL's management and collaboration with CSIR- Oil Palm Research Institute in Kusi and Forest and Horticultural Crops Research Centre, Kade (FOHCREC) will address this need.
Current demand of palm oil in Ghana is far in excess of local production. Shortfall is estimated at 50,000 metric tones (mt) per annum and it has been forecast that this will increase to over 125,000 metric tones by 2025. Availability of large tracts of land i.e. over say 4,000 hectares is currently a limiting barrier for the formation of big plantation companies like BOPP, TOPP, GOPDC etc. The way to grow the oil palm industry in Ghana is therefore through small out grower projects such as AOPL is promoting.
Other medium term objectives of AOPL's are the production of pigs and the rearing of Grass cutter rodent to partially address local meat production shortage and thereby help country to conserve foreign exchange.