The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Hatab Fadera
11 November 2009
Banjul — As the 2009/10 groundnut trade season is being ushered in, top officials at the revived Gambia Groundnut Cooperation (GGC), have stressed their resolve to ensuring a successful and resounding trade season.
Like the last trade season which went smoothly resulting in a lot of commendation from the farming community for cooperation, GGC wants repeat history this year too in the the words of Messrs Alieu Mboge and Anthony Carvalho, the managing director and deputy managing director of the GGC respectively. They indicated that they are well prepared and ready for the new trade season, revealing the hope to buy an estimated 25,000 tons of groundnut this season.The two officials made this revelation during an exclusive interview with the Daily Observer recently at the cooperation's headquarters at Denton Bridge in Banjul.
In the words of managing director Alieu Mboge, they recently conducted a field trip across the country with a view to assessing the groundnuts in terms of quality and quantity. "We are well prepared in terms of surveys that we have done, getting the depots ready, and so on," he said. "Once the price is determined," he continued "we will be start marketing as we did last season". According to him, what they have seen on the ground during their assessment predicts a good season, but noted that they will not go beyond 25,000 tons in terms of what they hope to market.While observing that efforts have been made to make The Gambia food self-sufficient in overall agricultural production, Mboge assured that the GGC will continue to do its utmost best to ensure a fair play for the farmers in terms of payment of their produce. For Anthony Carvalho, deputy managing director of The Gambia Groundnut Cooperation, as far as they are concerned, there is not going to be any credit buying, assuring that it will involve cash on delivery at various seccos (selling points). He described the idea of credit buying as a thing of the past, saying "all we are saying is that the farmer will get his cash as soon as they deliver the nut at the secco."
In addition, he said that they have tried to eliminate the middlemen, noting that the GGC deals directly with the farmers so as to ensure that farmers enjoy cash on delivery and the commissions. The GGC deputy managing director used the opportunity to advise farmers to ensure early delivery of their nuts at the seccos, stating that there is no need for them to keep them in the fields or compounds as that may give room for infestation.ClarificationThe GGC top brass also used the interview as an opportunity to clarify the recent Foroyaa newspaper reports concerning the 2008 world market prize for a ton of groundnut, as well as the local purchaser price, which were reported as D36,809 and D8,000 respectively. The report sent to the general public about the fairness in the entire marketing process of groundnut according to the GGC officials is "misleading and an attempt to confuse farmers." "It is important for us to throw light on how the purchase of groundnut is determined. It is important for the farmers and the general public to know it," stated MD Mboge, while indicating that they do not determine the price. "Considerations are made by the Agribusiness Services and Producers' Association (ASPA). We have framework of agreement for the groundnut sub-sector, and for all stakeholders to sit together before the start of the season to determine what we call the producer prize or farm gain prize," he explained.
"To establish this," he further explained: "we go through the implementation of certain mechanisms - that is to take account of the world market prize trend for groundnut and its products, as well as all other associated operational costs. This is taking into account crop financing and the produce that it makes: transportation, handling, processing and the export," he noted.
The most important thing apart from the buying of groundnut, he indicated, is how to evacuate the groundnut from the seccos to the depots, and finally to the milling section at Sarro in Banjul. "From there, we move on to the processing stage, where the first stage is the shelling of nuts which produces kernels. And the kernels will be able to identify the Hand Pick Select (HPS), which is an export product. Beyond that we have the Fair Average Quality (FAQ), which is crushed into oil and cake. This is the most expensive component of the whole exercise. So you don't just take the world market prize against what is obtained from the farm gain prize and conclude that that is the profit the GGC takes. No! is far from that. All these factors should be taken into account," he noted.
Mboge said even the world market price reported by that local newspaper is "completely wrong", noting that it doesn't tell which of the groundnut products the price is related to. He clarified that the correct world market price of HPS was US$750 per ton (equivalent to D20, 250 ) at the start of the season. In a month and half later, he added, the price went down to US$632, which is equivalent to D17,064. "The FAQ world market price was US$1160, (D31,240) and by March, the price went down to US$1025 per ton (D27, 675). When the price was determined around December, we estimated the world market price to be US$1400, but by the time that we started marketing, it went down to US$1160, which dramatically went down to US$1025 after just one month. So we have no control and this is the pricing mechanism problem that we have when we deal with world market price," MD Mboge pointed out, while noting that there is no margin to be measured between the world market price and the local purchaser price as all the associated operational costs should be taken into consideration.
He further expressed his disappointment about the last sentence of the said Foroyaa article, which reads: "The unfair price on credit buying basis will increase poverty and hardship." This is described by Mboge as something disheartening, stressing that the government of the day is very much concerned about the welfare of the farmers. He pointed out that their mandate is to make sure that the farmer has good deal after months of hard labour on their farms. He concluded that the government does not owe any farmer in last year's season as all of them were paid cash on delivery, and that there was no credit buying throughout the length and breadth of the country.
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