The Blue Skies Products Ghana Limited, a leading fruit processing and natural juice production company have called for government intervention to stem the rising encroachment on its out-grower lands.
Mr Alistair Djimatey, the Head of Corporate Affairs of Blue Skies said the company legally acquired those lands in the Eastern and Central Regions.
“As a responsible company, we have completed all documentations and properly registered and secured the lands in the company’s name” he told the media at Nsawam when the Eastern Regional Minister, Mrs Rita Akosua Adjei Awatey, visited the company.
Mr Djimatey said the situation now was worrying, saying that encroachers had taken over portions of the company’s land at Bawjiase in the Central Region.
He said: “These are lands we use to cultivate fruits like pawpaw, pineapple and passion fruit and it’s sad that we are losing those lands which are impeding our operations”.
Mr Djimatey indicated that due to the gradual encroachment on the lands that company had reduced its workforce at the pineapple plantation from 500 to 150.
“We have laid them off because of the emerging land litigation and we aren’t ready to engage in physical confrontations too”, he worried and appealed for government intervention to salvage the situation and thereby keep the company in operation.
Mr Djimatey noted that the Blue Skies remained the largest private-sector employer in the Eastern Region, with a workforce of more than 5,000, saying that their concerns ought to be addressed for the company to create more job opportunities for the youth.
On her part, Mrs Awatey commended the company for its contributions to job creation, and appealed to the traditional authorities and residents at Nsawam and its environs to support the company to protect its lands.
She also called on the chiefs and queens in the area to provide the company with more land to expand their operations for the people to get decent jobs to do.
By Benjamin Akoto, GNA