Ghana Business & Financial Times (PDF)
Leading US-based grain company Blumberg Grain has joined the Ghana Grains Council (GGC) Warehouse Receipting System (WRS) to improve grain storage in the country.
As a leader in the industry, Blumberg Grain will provide state-of-the-art food safety and security systems to consolidate efforts of the WRS for increased efficiency in the grain industry through strategically targeted interventions along the grains value chain. The GGC, a non-profit private sector organization funded by the USAID/ADVANCE, established the WRS aimed at helping in the efficient storage and marketing of grains.
Dr. Christian Rath, Senior Vice President of Blumberg Grain, said the company sees its partnership with GGC as an impressive strategy for West Africa — specifically to develop a West Africa Manufacturing Plant and Export Hub to fabricate and distribute their warehousing systems across the region.
Dr. Rath pointed out that Ghana and Nigeria are the finalists for the West Africa Hub location and Blumberg Grain is seeking to reach a selection decision before the end of June.
“If Ghana is selected as the location for the West Africa Manufacturing Plant and Export Hub, it will improve the lives of Ghanaian farmers significantly, create additional employment, increase exports, foster higher education, and help Ghana to become the agribusiness Hub for West Africa,” he adds.
For his part, CEO of GGC Dr. Kadri Alfah said Ghana needs private enterprises like Blumberg Grain to help raise the country’s prominence in the West Africa Region as a role-model for quality, technology, and effectiveness in agribusiness.
He stated that Blumberg Grain warehouses, storage facilities products and systems meet the requirements for GGC warehouse certification.
Blumberg Grain manufactures and distributes one of the few warehouses in the world that can accommodate both dry and cold storage, and reduces post-harvest storage losses to 5% or less.
Blumberg Grain is the leading company in the food-safety and security industry, providing vertically integrated food and crop storage systems revolving around a horizontal warehouse concept.
In a related development, GGC in collaboration with the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFA) has trained twenty warehouse staff on fire awareness, fire prevention and fire fighting techniques in Tamale.
The Warehouse Operations Manager of the GGC, Mr. Orleans Chinery, explained that the training was part of measures taken by the council to ensure warehouse workers do not compromise their health and safety needs — including the incidence of fire outbreaks.
“The Ghana Grains Council encourages fire risk assessment as a mandatory components of its certified warehouses management, and it was therefore important to create this awareness among warehouse staff,” he said.
The CEO of GGC, Dr. Kadri Alfah, added that insurance policies often taken by warehouse operators against fire and conditional bonds, meaning that successful claims will depend on the extent to which these set conditions are met. “Once a claim is made, the first thing the insurance company looks fir is if you have implemented these conditions. “Your claim will be affected if you have not implemented these conditions,” he warned.
Keywords: Blumberg Grain, Christian Rath, GGC, Ghana Grains Council, grain storage, Kadri Alfah, Orleans Chinery, Warehouse Receipting System, West Africa Manufacturing Plant and Export Hub, WRS
