The seventh Agricultural Industrialisation Conference, themed, ‘Financial and Technical Support for Cassava Processing,’ was held at the Canwin Hotel, Sakumono, Tema and hosted by the chairman of First Machinery Group, William Oppong-Bio.
The programme was to abet industrialisation in agriculture, specifically the cassava production processing value chain as well as encourage investors and farmers in order to earn their interest to cooperate with the group.
The event, honoured by his Royal Majesty King Tackie Teiko Tsuru ll, Ga Mantse, and partners from Stanbic Bank and Ghana Export Promotion Authority, laid emphasis on how relevant the mission of the TIAST Group is.
The sole aim is to add value to crops harvested in the country through science and technology in the agricultural sector, especially cassava processing, to generate revenue for its clients and the economy of the country when products produced are sold in the global market.
Giving the welcome address, Mr. Oppong-Bio indicated that investors are along the right lines as they cooperate with the TIAST Group in their agriculture business, therefore investors should be able to contribute to the state, themselves and the agricultural sector in terms of cultivation of cassava since they would not rely on other investors as they work with TIAST Group.
“I think that we are on a right path, you don’t have to lend to each other, I think that we ourselves should be able to leave a mark by bringing more money into the state, more money into our pockets,” he said.
In order for the audience to have a fair idea of how investing with TIAST Group would be, the Business Development Manager of TIAST Group, Augustine Esiamoah gave an overview about TIAST and exposed great satisfactory offers and services they have for investors who will partner with them in their agribusiness of cassava processing.
“Time for us to invest in this turnkey agricultural industrialisation project that offers the opportunity for you to own a fully automated cassava starch processing factory after sales services with 70-80% of its total setup cost, and a weekly offtake service guaranteed.
TIAST is offering an opportunity to be a factory owner with only 20-30% of the average cost in setting up a world standard processing factory that can earn you between US$3million to US$80million annually,” he stated.
According to him, cassava starch, which is one of the products obtained from cassava processing is on high demand in the global market as it is utilised in the market to manufacture different products used in our daily life and in various sectors. “Starch is used in more than 2,000 industries for paper, clothes, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and many more. The demand for cassava starch has exceeded its supply,” he noted.
Speaking at the event, the CEO of TIAST West Africa, Freca Xiao, said the group has some challenges as he supposed that Ghanaians who are in the agriculture business are also faced with some challenges. However, he said that TIAST has partnered with some institutions and Stanbic Bank to provide the best of services to their clients which will help them resolve the challenges they face in agribusiness.
“TIAST has a number of challenges in agriculture processing. The challenges in TIAST are: lack of market, lack of technology and inadequate finance. I am sure Ghanaians also have their challenges with agriculture processing. TIAST Group has partnered with Stanbic Bank. With this innovation of the model, TIAST went ahead to cooperate with the local cash price with the local company because we have partnered with the bank and other institutions; for we want to resolve this kind of challenges,” he said.
