Sunday, May 23, 2010

PALM KERNEL OIL PRODUCTION DWINDLES IN GHANA

In the early 90's many households in Ghana preserved kernel nuts, after using the palm fruit for preparing soup.

It use to be a common sight to see young girls busily drying the nuts after helping their mothers in the kitchen.

They did that with the motivation of selling it to indiginous palm kernel oil producers who moved from house to house to buy the nuts for their production. As a matter of fact,some mothers relied on the money saved from selling the nuts to support their family budget. This form of domestic recycling was very rewarding.

However, a news search conducted in some parts of Accra has revealed that many homes do no longer keep the nuts, but rather throw them away. According to them, the venture has become unattractive becuase the women do not come for them anymore even when it is being offered for free.

In Ghana palm, kernel production is a reserve occupation for women, particularly those in the Northern part of the country, therefore, most women who migrated to the capital relied on kernel production as their of livelihood.

But finding out why people throw away their nuts instead of storing, it was revealed that majority of the indigenious producers are quitting the business for other menial jobs such as head porters becuase the industry is collapsing.

Therefore unlike the past when it was so common to see women groups or individuals producing palm kernel oil as a source of employment in various communities in the capital, now, such joint are hard to come by.

The few people spotted in the business lamented that their production has badly been hit by the influx importation of foreign cooking oil and other competitive products.

Basically what comes to mind for most Ghanaians as the product from kernel is the oil extract generated for cooking, hence, public perception of the kernel oil contains high level of cholesterol, has made the product unattractive for consumption.

This they say, has cause many of the women to fold-up their business due to the drastic fall in demand, thereby making them run into debt. " I have been in this business for more than 30 years. we use to supply some of the soap making industries in Tema and business was good.I use to pay some of my children's school fees from this but for the past few years they do not purchase our products anymore" 51 year old Hajia Alima at one of the few surviving production sites at Ashiaman, said.

She further noted they do not have any kind of support be it technical or financial. Every stage of production is done manually.
Adding that, as a result, they have little capital to run the business that is the more reason why they can not go rounds for the nuts. With no technical and financial support from government, sustaining production has become very difficult.


In certain countries like Malaysia, not only is palm kernel used for making oil, but the by-products are used for different purposes. The dry fiber cake from the pressing oil and the kernel shells are used for the drying ovens. Leftovers from the kernel oils are also used as nutritious animal feed.

Unfortunately in Ghana, it appears we are losing it and letting such a valuable resources left to rot.
The Trade and Industry Ministry and the womens Ministry must wake up to the call of reviving this major economic avenue.

Palm kernel production business can be a major employment venture as well as poverty alleviation among women.

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