<<Print>>

GOIA Limited Company, incorporated in Mauritius, and specializing in fish oil extraction amongst other things, is to establish a novel production unit in Tema under a new company called Ocean Products (OPG) Limited to produce high quality omega-rich oil derivative, for final use in NESTLE infant food products. Ocean Products (OPG) Limited, which is already incorporated in Ghana as a Free Zone company, will procure its raw material from tuna fish to produce the Omega-rich oils. Pioneer Food Cannery [PFC] Limited, the largest processor of tuna in Ghana, producer of the famous Star-Kist brand canned tuna and other quality tuna products for export, will supply OPG Limited with its raw material. OPG Limited is expected to commence production by April, 2012 with a work force of about twenty (20). It will ship its extracted oil to Switzerland, where it will be refined by a subsidiary company, wholly owned by Nestle, called SOPHINOL. The oil extraction will be through a �cold �extraction� process, where tuna fish materials are blended with water and through a series of automatically controlled highly sophisticated equipment under very tight hygienic conditions, a semi crude oil will be produced. This oil is rich in Omega-3, 5, as well as 6 and because of its high quality oil, the raw material must be converted within the same hour and therefore necessitating a co-location of the supplier and processor:it must be within a 5-minute transfer. The oil will then be containerized and sealed in metallic drums with a special internal material coating, specific to this product, avoiding any reaction, be stored under refrigerated conditions before being exported. Two directors of OPG Limited, Messrs Stephane Piat and Jean Yvess Rousseau and the Operations Manager of SOPHINOL, Mr. Eric Coiffier in a recent interview at Tema said, the novel concept is being introduced in Ghana for the first time, saying, similar set-up has been in existence in the Seychelles Island for the past years, where they partnered in co-location agreement with the sister factory of PFC Limited. Similar operations also already exist in Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan who are all exporting to Nestle. While here, the OPG officials held talks with the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) to discuss their specifications, factory layout and HACCP plan to achieve such high quality product intimating that, the company will need its own Ghana Standard Authority (GSA) approval number for the export of the oil which must be referenced by the DG SANCO Office in Brussels in the European Union. �Ghana should be extremely proud to be associated with such novel productions and attracting foreign investors to really put the nation on the map of �making a difference in the world of baby foods�, says Mr. Eric Coiffier, the Operations Manager of SOPHINOL.