Accra, June 6, GNA - Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) of Germany is interested in taking total control of WAMCO's two cocoa mills at Takoradi with an annual throughput of 70,000 metric tons, a Government advisor said on Tuesday.

WAMCO, or West African Mills Company, is a joint venture between Germany's Hamester (60%) and the Ghana Cocoa Board (40%). "They (ADM) want to take over everything (both Hamester's and Cocobod's stakes)," Mr Robert Kwabena Poku Kyei, a Special Advisor on Cocoa Affairs to the Minister of Finance, told Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Tuesday.

Mr Poku Kyei said so far the Government had not taken any decision on the interest expressed by ADM. "We haven't had any talks with them yet," he added.

He said he was not aware of any official offer price. However there had been talk about ADM proposing to pay up to 30 million dollars. Like US agribusiness giant Cargill that announced, this weekend, the construction of a 60,000 tons grind in the Tema Free Zone Area, ADM initially planned to build its own Ghana cocoa grinding mill. The Government has announced an ambitious plan to increase local grinding of Ghana's cocoa to 50 per cent, up from the about 30 per cent currently.