Defunct Ayensu Starch Factory Bounces Back After 10 Years

The Ayensu Starch Company Limited (ASCO) that became defunct in 2006, two years after it had been inaugurated, has been reactivated to create jobs and boost agriculture and industry. 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Acting Trade Minister, Hanna  Tetteh, said challenges that plagued the factory when it was first inaugurated included the delay in the payment of out growers, as well as the unattractive price of cassava which did not encourage farmers to go into its cultivation.  

She said in view of that, the factory incurred huge costs in production, which informed a partnership with the GGBL, when she was a Trade Minster. 

Ms Tetteh said a sliding scale policy was therefore adopted which involved the reduction of excise duties for GGBL and other breweries if they used local materials for production. 

She said it was because government realised the factory then did not have the capacity to produce starch in large quantities for GGBL, textile and pharmaceutical companies, which needed starch in their production, that it sought an investor to re-capitalise ASCo. 

ASCo was inaugurated in 2004 as the hub for cassava production in Ghana and Africa. 

It however collapsed in 2006, after only two years of operation, as a result of inadequate raw materials supply, frequent power outages, lack of spare parts and working capital, among other debilitating factors. 

Not wanting such a huge investment to go waste, the government through the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 2010 initiated plans to revamp the factory and indeed it begin the production of starch in 2011. 

DAILY GRAPHIC