The highly efficient mills is to help increase the oil extraction rate of palm oil in Liberia
The mills are to be installed as part of efforts to increase the production capacities of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), who are contributing 50% of the activity cost, as partners in the implementation of the Sustainable West Africa Palm Oil Programme (SWAPP), funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ghana.
The first mill, which is being set up in Coniwein Gbeal in the Grand Bassa county, was received by Franklin Jackson, the Chief Executive Officer of Local Farm Incorporated, an SME serving as one of Solidaridad’s partners under SWAPP. It is expected to be completed and commissioned in December 2020.
Franklin Jackson said this was timely as his company’s mill is unable to meet all the current local demand. At full capacity, the mill will process one tonne of fresh fruit bunches per hour, and will serve over 600 oil palm farmers and processors in and around the community. J. Cyrus Saygbe Sr, Solidaridad’s Oil Palm Programme Manager in Liberia, said other mills are expected to be installed in Bong, Lofa and Nimba counties.
The first mill is being set up in Coniwein Gbeal in the Grand Bassa county
We are installing these mills to support the small and medium enterprises to scale up their processing activities and improve the production of palm oil in Liberia.” -J. Cyrus Saygbe Sr
Smallholder farmers’ quest to process their fresh fruit bunches into crude palm oil has been on the decline due to less efficient mills and, sometimes, unhygienic pits that are operated manually and require a lot of time and energy and also pose safety challenges. The efficient mills that have been introduced by Solidaridad will deal with these challenges and prevent palm fruits from going waste because higher capacity mills are unavailable.
The mills have been introduced by Solidaridad to will deal with processing challenges faced by smallholder farmers
Solidaridad, through the Sustainable West Africa Palm Oil Programme, will also upgrade an existing mill in Bomi county to provide quality service delivery to smallholder farmers and processors within the area. This will complement the delivery of milling services by other groups in the area.
The upgrading of the mills in the Bomi county is expected to be completed by the close of 2020.
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