The 2nd National Oil Palm stakeholders’forum will be organised by the Oil Palm Development Association of Ghana (OPDAG) at the Institute of Bankers in Accra from September 12-13 2019.

It will be held under the theme, ‘Building a Vibrant Oil Palm Sector in Ghana, the Role of OPDAG and other Stakeholders’.

The forum will bring together value chain actors of the oil palm sector farmers, smallholder/outgrowers, farmer-based organizations, plantation companies, palm oil mills/millers, palm oil refiners, palm-based manufacturing companies, other private sector oil palm stakeholders such researchers, academics and government officials.

The objective is to fashion out strategies to leverage the available opportunities and build consensus toward increasing farm and processing productivity capacity, attract investments and also to close the national demand-supply gap.

At a media briefing, the Interim Executive Secretary of OPDAG, Mr. Selorm Quame, said the association plans to use the forum to educate oil palm value chain actors on best management practices, new innovation and latest technology in the oil palm sector.

He added that the forum will create an educational platform and encourage the youth to consider oil palm as a viable business venture, beyond planting and harvesting.

He explained that the event will be in two forms, the Stakeholders forum seeks to educate, inform and address the various challenges in the oil palm sector, and the other is the Annual General Meeting, that seeks to build the structure of OPDAG to be the voice and advocate for all value chain actors  in influencing Government policy and also to attract all possible partners in addressing the challenges and while harnessing the economic potential of the entire value chain of the oil palm sector.

Prior to the main event in September, OPDAG members would hold regional meetings in the Eastern, Western, Central and Ashanti regions to elect the association’s regional executives.

Praising President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s administration for putting in place initiatives such as the Planting for Export & Rural Development and the establishment of the Ghana Tree Crop Development Authority geared towards the development of the oil palm sector, Mr. Selorm Quame called on all oil palm stakeholders to come on board for the successful implementation and sustainability of the various initiatives.

The 2019 stakeholders’ forum is being supported by Solidaridad West Africa under the Sustainable West Africa Oil Palm Programme (SWAPP) funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands (EKN) and the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). 

Solidaridad is an international network organization with partners all over the world. Solidaridad West Africa focuses on stimulating sustainable supply chains through innovations in production, marketing and trade relations, landscape management and policy enabling.

In these efforts, Solidaridad simultaneously addresses food security, nutrition and community development.

OPDAG is a non-governmental association with the focus of promoting socially responsible, ecologically and economically sustainable production, value addition and trading of oil palm in Ghana.

Its membership includes smallholder farmers, commercial farmers, nucleus estate plantations, millers, local refiners, manufacturers of soaps and other consumer goods plus other food companies that use palm oil and its by-products.