Agriculture the first business created on the earth has from time immemorial presented many opportunities in various forms. Farming, transportation, logistics, export, farm services, industrialization, and many more.
Many individuals like Ernesto Tarascon, CEO of Trassaco Group owners of Sant Agata Agricultural Property of Barone, and Nabil Moukarzel, owner of Finatrade Group which is one of the largest food manufacturing and food distribution companies in Ghana and West Africa. Dr. Kwabena Darko, Ceo of Darko Farms which has one of the most successful poultry farms in Ghana, and Mr. Anthony Kofi Gyamfi Ceo of Topman Farms among others.
Today such opportunity is being presented through industrialization, specifically in the cassava starch production sector. With the proven fact that industrialization is the source of true wealth in agriculture, one is wondering why Africa and Ghana to be precise, an agricultural nation has not taken advantage of this initiative and are still majorly relying on the subsistent farming and trading, and exportation of goods in its raw state even though it is not yielding the true value of the agricultural sector as compared to countries in the Western and Asian world. A typical example is Nigeria and Thailand which are the 1st and 2nd producers of cassava respectively. Thailand makes about USD 3 billion from cassava derivatives whiles Nigeria does not even make half of that from their overall exports.
High-quality cassava starch is one of the fastest booming industries in the world today. Thus, with a country that is among the top 3 highest cassava producers in Africa, which has raw cassava waste rate of about 60% of the cassava produced in Ghana, one will think Ghana would be the best to take advantage of this fast-growing market.
Cassava Starch is the new gold on the market due to its versatility. Starch itself can be used in over 2000 industries ranging from textile, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food manufacturing industries, etc. However, what makes cassava starch more unique is that it is suitable for every industry. While Potato and sweet potato starch are more suitable for the production of food, maize starch is more suitable for pharmaceuticals only, cassava starch is suitable for every industry and is also cheaper than the rest of the top starch products thus the hike in the demand for the product, especially in China where there is a requirement of about 9 million tons of cassava starch yearly for industrial purposes but is only able to import just about 3 million tons. The local starch market is no different Ghana in 2020 according to tridge.com imported a total amount of about $840,000 of starch into the country. On the other hand, cassava exported from Ghana in 2020 according to GEPA generated just about $584000.This clearly shows that we are sending our raw materials out at lower prices and importing value additional goods produced from the same raw materials bought from us at higher prices. This clearly shows that if in 2020 Ghana was able to process the $584000 worth of cassava to high-quality cassava starch, we could have made an additional $840000 in this economy. And with a crop like cassava which has a total cultivated land of about 1,027,755 hectares, with about 70% of farmers in Ghana actively involved in its production, and can be cultivated at any place in the country, Cassava starch production would have been the multi-million sector that any investor or business person would have to venture into.
Unfortunately, in the past, the stained history of agricultural industrialization, like Ayensu starch factory, Pawlugu tomato factory, Komenda sugar factory, and several defunct factories have deterred many investors from venturing into this industry and also deterred a lot of banks from giving low rate credits or any credit at all to individuals who want to industrialize. This has really made the agricultural industrialization sector being labeled a red flag venture as it is considered a high-risk project.
In the collapse of these factories three (2) major issues have led to the shutdown of these factories. The use of Substandard machines with short life spans and also the delay in technical support (after-sales services) and the issue of inadequate supply of raw materials either from the individual or their out-growers, leads to low production and also the production of substandard goods which has resulted in the loss of a ready market for processed goods in Ghana. This precedent has gone rendered the sector as high risk thus leading to difficulty in the access to funding for the industry players and those who want to enter the sector. This for so many years was a big problem. Policies like free zone and 1D1F were geared towards solving these problems but there is more to solve than just incentives.
In the midst of these issues a company known as TIAST Group is offering a turn-key project where stakeholders and investors can become factory owners with massive support in Technology, technical, Financial, and offtake of the final goods.
TIAST Group is an international company with over 20 years of experience in providing Turnkey industrialization services in the agricultural sector.
The aim is to Add More Value to Agriculture through Agricultural Industrialization through the provision of technical services including the design, manufacture, installation, and maintenance of agricultural processing machinery for various crops. We also provide Financial Support through Stanbic Bank, Off-take services, and Training in the processing industry.
With a vision of supporting companies, individuals, communities, investors, farmers, and all stakeholders who will partner with them to establish over 1000 factories, providing over one (1) million jobs and providing a quick reliable offtake service for all the processed goods produced from these factories to generate over $10 billion from these factories for our partners across West Africa. TIAST has a special project for CASSAVA STARCH which entails;
- Setting up a fully automated processing factory for cassava starch.
- Providing technical support to run the factory.
- Guaranteeing collateral-free Financial leasing from Stanbic Bank to cover up to 80% of the total project cost.
- Off-taking all the starch produced by the factory.
- Training of Ghanaians to install maintain and run the factory.
The Technical service entails setting up the processing factory, which includes the processing line itself, installation, and construction of the Warehouse, Workshop, packaging area, dormitory, and office structures, water treatment, recycling, and purification systems. There will also be qualified engineers to run the factory and train the local technical men to get all the knowledge so they can take over in the near future. They also provide optional farm machines that will help with the farming of the raw materials.
To promote localization, TIAST has a local spare part supply factory being set up in Dawa, Tema that will provide easy access to spare parts to all factories and ensure fast replacement and repair of faulty parts to ensure efficiency and maximization in production. The project also comes with a 3 years warranty for main equipment and three years of free maintenance service
The Off-Take service will ensure that every product from the factory is sold as soon as possible. The off-take will be done on weekly basis, which means at least 4 containers will be sold for partners every week. With our off-take, we give a letter of credit to the partner even before you produce then a bill of lading is added after the shipment is done so the client can process the money from Stanbic Bank.
The financial service sees to it that TIAST will guarantee for Stanbic Bank to provide 80 % financial support of the total factory and services cost for the partner therefore partner wouldn’t have to bring any collateral for this support. The repayment schedule is 2- 5 years and this will be deducted as agreed by Stanbic bank and Partner from the sales that TIAST will make for the client when the product is sold.
With the current market for the starch industry and the advantage of raw material production in Ghana, I believe there is no better investment opportunity bigger and better than this one.
With this opportunity, this is the best time to actually invest in agricultural industrialization.
Time for us to invest in this turn-key agricultural industrialization project that offers the opportunity for you to own a fully automated cassava starch processing factory, aftersales services, with 80% of its total set up cost, and a weekly offtake service guaranteed.
TIAST is offering an opportunity to be a factory owner with only 20 of the average cost in setting up a world standard processing factory that can earn an investor between $4million to $80 million annually depending on the capacity. The factories will also serve as a large market for the local produce leading to an increase in production and more income for the primary producer.
The opportunity is here for all stakeholders to take advantage of it, I believe it is time to we all as Ghanaians come on board and make the millions and billions through the opportunity
TIAST Group is providing.
Comments are closed.