Tema, July 21, GNA -- The management of Unilever Ghana Limited on Monday called for the establishment of an Oil Palm Regulatory Board to sustain and promote the sector.

The Board would be a replica of the Cocoa Marketing Board to regulate the pricing, cultivation and quality of palm oil. Mr Kweku Boateng, Customer Development Manager of Unilever, said this when members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism paid a working visit to the company in Tema. Mr Boateng said with the establishment of the Board, activities of palm oil importers could be monitored and that there was no need for the importation of crude palm oil as Ghana is capable of producing the quantity needed by the factories.

He said the oil palm sector had improved over the past four years as the Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP) and the Twifo Oil Palm Plantations (TOPP) produce about 40,000 metric tonnes of palm oil annually. He said the sector could meet the 60,000 metric tonnes annual local demand for vegetable oil. Mr Prince Obeng, Marketing Director of Unilever, said the country loses about nine million US dollars annually due to the importation of cooking oil. Mr Obeng said research carried out by his outfit in March revealed that 368 containers of refined cooking oil were imported in March and between 21,500 and 32,400 dollars were lost through non-payment of duties, false declaration and smuggling. Such importers reduce the price of their goods as some of them import saturated oil labelled as crude oil palm therefore paying only 5 percent import duty instead of the 20 percent. The Marketing Director said the oil palm plantations were collapsing slowly due to the activities of the importers as consumers always buy the cheaper products leading to the factories not buying the plantations' produce. Mr Charles Cofie, Chief Executive Officer of Unilever, said over 45,000 people nationwide depend on Unilever for their survival and that the company had awarded 350 scholarships to Senior High School students, 87 under graduates and 18 post graduates.

Mr Joseph B. Dankwa, Chairman of the Committee and MP for Abuakwa North, said the visit was to afford members the understanding of the sector as well as get first hand knowledge that would help them formulate measures to promote the sector. Mr Dankwa promised that the Committee would channel the request of the company to parliament and also urged companies to invite parliamentary committees to their establishments to enable MPs to formulate laws that would improve all sectors of the economy.