Blues Skies Ghana Limited, the company that produces Blue Skies fruit juice, has asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for help to address the activities of land guards and illegal sand winners in their operational areas.
The company explained that unlawful activities in the area were affecting pineapple cultivation, which served as the primary raw material for its operations.
Ms Janet Lutterodt, the company’s General Manager, made the appeal to the President on Tuesday when he visited the company’s production site at Dobro near Nsawam in the Eastern region.
She said the appeal was necessary due to the adverse effects of the activities on their business.
Ms Lutterodt noted that, in addition to the illegal operations of sand winners and land guards, the continuous sale of farmlands to estate developers hampered the expansion of their out-grower farms, and that the company lost their 200-acre mango plantation because of such actions.
The land tenure issue is plaguing this community and its impact on pineapple production was adverse. Today you have land and then tomorrow you do not. You have land, you have all your papers intact and then the next day a chief has sold the land and before you know, you are in litigation,” she emphasised.
Ms Lutterodt informed the President that the company was also facing some challenges because of the new regulation, which required the company to establish a Letter of Commitment (LOC) before export.
President Akufo-Addo committed to ensure that such negative acts did not disrupt the company’s operations.
He said that his government would implement the procedures required to ensure that the company expanded while also serving the interests of the community.
Later, during an interaction with the company’s workers, the President thanked them for their commitment to the company’s growth.
He said the government had instituted policies to promote agriculture in the country, and that those arrangements would be extended to the company to enable them to continue operations.
