Kwae (E/R), Aug 24, GNA - The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, on Tuesday visited the Ghana Oil Palm Development Company, (GOPDC), at Kwae in the Kwaebibirem District to acquaint himself with its operations.

GOPDC is an integrated agro-industrial company that specializes in the organic cultivation of oil palm, extraction of crude palm oil and palm kernel oil and also produces special oils used by the food industry.

The minister held discussions with the company's management, members of the board of directors and representatives of the out grower farmers.

Out growers are farmers who are assisted by the company with high yielding seedlings, fertilizers and training to follow good agricultural practices.

In return, the farmers are expected to sell their produce to the company.

The Managing Director of GOPDC, Mr Werner Pirijns, said the company had 21,000 hectares of oil palm plantation and helped to develop about 14,000 hectares for 7,000 out growers at Kwae and Okumaning.

Mr Pirijns said the company was focused on creating value for its produce.

He said the company was investing in education, health and issues concerning the environment because they were essential factors in social development.

The company's Director of Agriculture, Miss Anke Massart, said it was a policy of GOPDC not to plant oil palm close to rivers but instead plant indigenous trees along rivers to protect them.

She said the company had adopted good agricultural practices in oil palm cultivation and palm oil production in keeping with the requirements of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

The Minister toured the company's nursery, plantation and mills and learnt that farmers obtained oil palm seedling at GHC 2 instead of the market price of GHC 6.

Mr Ahwoi commended the company on its achievements and advised out growers not to divert their produce to small-scale millers.

He sited the example of tomato and other farmers who were assisted to produce but sold their produce elsewhere and refused to pay back loans granted them.

When representatives of the out grower farmers pleaded for the supply of fertilizer on credit, the Managing Director said repayment by farmers had been 93horrible" with some of them in arrears between four and six years.

He said due to the level of diversion, the major palm oil companies including Twifo Oil Palm Plantation (TOPP) and Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOO+PP) had stopped assisting farmers.