Help us deal with land guards, sand winners…Blue Skies mgt appeals to President

Ms Janet Lutterodt (middle) briefing President Akufo-Addo on the operations of the company

Management of Blues Skies Products Ghana Limited, producers of Blue Skies fruit juice, have appealed to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to help deal with activities of land guards and illegal sand winners in their operational areas.

According to the company, these illegal activities in the area were affecting the cultivation of pineapple which served as the main raw material for their operations.

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President Akufo-Addo (third from right) being briefed during his visit to the Blue Skies by Ms Janet Lutterodt

Speaking during interaction with the President as part of his official visit to the company at Doboro in Nsawam yesterday, the General Manager of the company, Ms Janet Lutterodt, said the appeal had become imperative due to the negative impact of the activities on their operations.

She said apart from the illegal activities of sand winners and land guards, the continuous sale of farmlands to estate developers was also hampering the expansion of their outgrower farms.

“The land tenure issue is an issue that is plaguing this community and also its impact on pineapple production was adverse. Today you have land and then tomorrow you don’t. You have a 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 explained said the company lost its 200 acres of mango plantation due to such activities.

In addition to the land challenges she said the company was also facing some challenges with the new directive which mandated the company to put in place Letter of Commitment (LOC) before exports.

Responding to the appeal, President Akufo-Addo pledged to ensure that the operations of the company were not affected by such negative activities.

He said his government would put in place the necessary measures to ensure that the company expanded and also served the interest of the community.

The President while addressing a durbar of staff of the company after his interaction with management of the company expressed his gratitude to the workers for their commitment to the development of the company.

He said government had put in place necessary arrangement and policies that would help develop agriculture in the country and those arrangements would be extended to the company to enable them continue with their operations.

President Akufo-Addo used the occasion to urge all Ghanaians to participate in the limited registration exercise in order to get their names on the voter roll.

FROM CLIFF EKUFUL, DOBLO