19/07/2016 (Awoko) - Ned Oil a Dutch company engaged in palm oil investment in Yele has exported over 20 containers of palm oil and the company will export more by the end of the year, Abubakarr Daramy, head of public relations in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security said in an interview. The company hopes to reach full capacity by 2020. Each container is twenty feet long.

“Ned Oil has their plantation in Yele that is in Tonkolili District. They use the farmers as out growers and they buy from the farmers too. They have their own processing and packaging facility in Yele and their Corporate Social Responsibility is outstanding,” Mr Daramy said.

Oil palm is seen as one of the crops that will address the country’s balance of trade deficit. The palm tree grows in many parts of the country and about 60 percent of it grows in the wild. The remaining 40 percent is cultivated mostly by smallholder farmers. Yele is in the centre of the country and the soil is fertile to cultivate palm trees.

Ned Oil has a hydro facility that supplies electricity to the township. The company has placed street lights all across the town. Lion Heart Hospital run by the company is one of the best health facilities in the country.

“Ned Oil is a good example of oil palm investment in Sierra Leone like Gold Tree in Daru and others,” He stressed.

The government is investing in oil palm too. The state-owned plantation, the Gambia-Mattru oli palm project in Mattru Jong is 7,008 hectares of plantation and 3,500 hectares have been cultivated. This plantation has attracted multinational funding. The African Development Bank ADB) through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement has provided about $11 million  to fund the Gambia-Mattru project, Mr. Daramy said. Oil palm is seen as an export of the future to address the country’s balance of trade deficit.

The agriculture ministry is undertaking a new project – the integrated solution for Africa that is going to do between 500,000  700,000 chickens at any given time and 500,000 eggs a day. The growing of onions is part of the project. Sierra Leone spends about $15 million a year on the importation of onions.