A representative of Gamfood Trading Company Ltd. Mr. Hassan Akar has said plans are afoot to start oil production in the Gambia, in the next three to four months.
The official broke the good news on Thursday, 28 January 2021 before members of the National Assembly Select Committee on Trade, during their engagement at the Assembly complex in Banjul.
“Currently, there are plans afoot to start oil production in the country in the next three to four months, under the project called United Vegetable Oil Industry at Saroo,” the Gamfood official informed the gathered lawmakers.
“It is taking time because of the pandemic; because our materials and machinery keep delaying, but in the next three to four months, we would have clearer view when we will start,” the NAMs heard.
It could be noted that several importers in the country appeared before the NA Select Committee on Trade in its drive to figure out reasons for the constant hike in the commodity prices and what could be done to curb the trend. The importers were Shyben A. Madi and Sons Limited, Gamfood Trading Co. Ltd., Nandu, Sas Enterprise, L.B Gaye and Sons Sugar Company, Tony Banana &Sons Ltd., EASB NAFA Ent., Mustapha G. Jallow and Sons, Bussura Trading, I J Enterpise, M A Jallow Food Trading and Khalil Jaafar.
According to them, there is also a high demand on the essential commodities, especially in Africa and the production level is very low. They continued that increment on the demurrage on trade in containers is US$3000 to US$ 4000 on rice, sugar and oil; and argued “this is another major factor for the increment in basic commodities”.
The importers also explained the problems they are having regarding importation during this era of Covid-19 Pandemic.
Before the pandemic, they informed, the costs of shipment of a container of rice used to be around US$1600, but today, it’s US$3800 to US$ 400. At the same time, factories and suppliers are not working consistently, but instead they are working in shifts.
“In some cases, 50 percent of them are working, while the remaining fifty percent of them are not operating,” the importers indicated, adding: “So, this has caused lack of capacity or scarcity in the shipping of the essential commodities”.
They told the NAMs that they (importers) had series of meetings with the Ministry of Trade during which the latter had asked them to produce their weekly sales, weekly prices, sales and weekly stock levels.
“We are trying our best to sell at the cheapest price and not to increase our prices. It is not [in] our favour as business [owners]. On the other hand, we have to import and sell at a cheap price,” the country’s major importers held.
On demurrage, they posited to the legislative committee that, the Gambia Government should look into the charges on containers importing essential commodities in to the country, with a view to fixing it at an affordable cost. They said the fact that, they had some stock in sugar prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic, has really helped the country, stressing without the stocks, the price of sugar would have been higher than its current price.
The country’s leading lights in trade also highlighted the effects of lockdowns on businesses, lamenting that closure of businesses and job losses are some of the contributing factors to the rise in prices of commodities, reasoning because the supply is low due to ineffective operations of the shipping and supplying companies.
The Chairperson of the Assembly’s Trade Committee, Hon. Muhammed Mahanera, hailed the importers for honouring their invitation and the information they had provided to the committee. He pointed out that the information would enable and guide the committee in its struggle with the stakeholders to ensuring that the continued hiking of prices is reviewed and fixed at reasonable prices.
