Mr. Charles Cofie, Chief Executive Office of Unilever has reiterated his call on the Ghana Standard Board (GSB) and other authorities to control the influx of counterfeit products onto the Ghanaian market. Speaking at the Facts behind the Figures programme on the Ghana Stock Exchange in Accra on Friday, April 17, Mr. Cofie said allowing inferior goods, including medicines, food products and clothing onto the Ghanaian market gave a bad image to the country since people would assume that criminal activities were permitted in the country. The Facts behind the Figures Programme organised by the Stock Exchange seeks to allow companies listed on the bourse to explain their performance to investing public and the press. The Unilever CEO said imitation in trade is a dangerous phenomenon, which cripples the activities of genuine producers, erodes the confidence of consumers in the products as they find it difficult to differentiate between genuine counterfeit products. "Apart from cheating the licensed producers and customers, government is also deprived of revenue due to the evasion of taxes by such business organisations,” Mr Cofie said. Mr. Cofie said Unilever was not talking about the bad effects of unfair trade practices because it stood to gain from such controls. All it sought to do was to ensure that a conducive environment was created for trade and competition to thrive. He said despite the challenges of last year, the company, was able to meet its targets, delivering improved margins and profit as well as cutting down unproductive cost. He said a major challenge had been crude palm oil, the main raw material, whose cost went up in the world market by over 70 per cent from $800 to $1,340. The market of crude palm oil has gone through an unprecedented period of bullrun that has taken prices to four digits in dollar terms, a stark contrast with the long bear run of 2001-2002. Currently, both crude palm oil and soyabean oil are trading well above the psychological $1,000 a tonne, nearly five times higher than prices 5-6 years ago and twice the rates traded in 2007. An unusual combination of factors is a robust surge in demand, supply uncertainties and fund play are currently seen driving the commodities market in general, and vegetable oil market, in particular up. Mr Cofie said Unilever rose to the challenge by adopting cost saving measures, a reshaping of the portfolio and support for the company’s distributors, especially those operating in difficult areas that enable it to deliver a sterling performance last year. On his expectations for 2009, Mr Cofie said it was going to be a challenging year, especially in the face of the global economic downturn and the risk and threat from unfair competition. He expressed the hope that Unilever would rise above the challenge through appropriate internal operations to ensure profitability. "Revenue for 2008 grew by 19.1 per cent to GH¢165.6 million up from 139.0 million in 2007 while operating margin was 17.2 percent up from 13.1 percent. Mr.Cofie assured shareholders of management commitment to growing the business through prudent management. Source: Times