Jospong Group, a conglomerate owned by Ghanaian multimillionaire Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, has announced a collaboration with a major Thai rice producing company to develop an integrated rice farming project in Ghana.
The Jospong Group is also looking to establish rice farms in all 16 regions of Ghana within the upcoming months. The company anticipates that rice importation into the country will cease within two years of the initiative’s successful implementation.
According to Dr. Agyepong, executive chairman of the Jospong Group, Thai companies will provide technical and equipment support for the entire rice value chain in the country with the goal of producing rice for the local Ghanaian market as well as export. The partnership will also witness the establishment of rice milling plants and an organic fertilizer plant.
Dr. Agyepong made this known when he led a delegation of Jospong officials and their Thai partners to pay a courtesy call on President Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House on Fri., Dec. 30, 2022.
Dr. Agyepong stated in his presentation to bring the President up to speed on the steps his organization has taken since conceiving the plan to go into rice production that Ghana presently imports between $800 million and $1 billion of rice into the country on an annual basis.
He stated that, as a result of his recent visit to Thailand and the subsequent signing of a memorandum of understanding with their Thai partners, a company named Asian African Corporation was formed to facilitate the execution of the partnership and the project as a whole.
The Jospong CEO also stated that his Thai partners will invest approximately $160 million in the project. In total, 16 groups of Thai nationals have been formed, and they will collaborate with Ghanaian out growers and farmers in the rice sector to get the project started.
“Our idea is that we are going to grow rice through out the entire country, from the North to the South. We are developing 16 teams made up of Thai nationals to work with the out growers and farmers and within two years, we will stop importing rice,” Agyepong said.
According to Agyepong, the next rice planting season, March-April 2023, is the target timeline for the project to begin across the country.
The value of rice imports into Ghana rose from $151 million in 2007 to $1.6 billion in 2020.
