By Adama Makasuba
Muhammed Njie, Managing Director of Gambia Groundnut Corporation (GGC) has disclosed that about one billion dalasis was spent on buying groundnut so far as he appealed to farmers to exercise patience for them to sort out things judiciously.
“We have spent close to 1 billion dalasis. That’s a huge sum of money and we have 33 metric tons of groundnuts and it cost us nearly 1 billion daalasis. This has never happened in the country, because last year we only bought 20 metric tons of groundnuts, and we are still going to buy more from farmers,” he said.
Meanwhile, he detailed the slow buy of groundnut from farmers and linked the slowness to change in the international market, adding that China which is Gambia’s main market in terms of buying groundnut has farmed one million tons of groundnuts while India is also supplying them with groundnuts, too.
“We have little challenges in the international market this year China, that’s a main market grew over a million tons of groundnut and the country shares border with India who is also supplying them with tons of groundnut,” he explained.
“If you see why middlemen are not buying groundnuts this year, it is because China who was given money to buy groundnuts is no longer doing that and it is only GGC which is buying groundnuts,” he disclosed.
He reiterated that this has never happened in the country, because last year GGC only bought 20 metric tons of groundnuts, adding that there is a projection that they would buy 4 metric tons of groundnuts before March.
He lamented about the old age of the machines used for pilling groundnuts, saying his institution has rented ten machines to help make buying of groundnuts easier for farmers.
Mr Njie also announced that fertilisers have been bought but added that this year’s fertiliser sale will be strictly controlled.