Women members of the BBN Cooperative are looking for the new markets within Ghana to sell their high quality parboilled rice. As inflation surges and cedi’s value drops, they urge buyers to buy their local rice wich is readily available for Ghanaian consurmers.
Reunited in their third Annual General Assembly on November 1st, 93 delegates of the Upper East BBN Farmers’ Cooperative Union Limited, coming from 59 women farmer-based organizations, discussed the need to get their high-quality parboiled rice out to the national market.
The BBN Cooperative, supported by SOCODEVI as part of the PROCED project was officially born in October 2020 with 1,260 women members. Two years on, the cooperative members have already collectively faced many challenges while completing 2 milling facilities to facilitate their milling operations, getting FDA approval and certification to commercialize their parboiled rice business, marketing of the parboiled rice and recruiting staff to help in managing the day-to-day operations of the cooperative.
During the meeting, members were made aware of the ongoing implementation of a traceability system and the coop’s quality guidelines for members’ parboiling activity, right from paddy purchase to the final product delivered by the coop to the market. This is to ensure food safety and the quality of BBN’s product on the Ghanaian market.
“The BBN cooperative has been in operation for the past two years. The cooperative is ready to produce parboiled rice in large quantities to feed Ghana and beyond. BBN cooperative, as part of its readiness to produce in large quantities, have commissioned two complete milling facilities in Bawku and Bolgatanga in the Upper East region to support the course of producing in large quantities. Also, BBN cooperative has the expertise to process the rice right from the parboiling stage through to milling and packaging. Notwithstanding, BBN cooperative is opening its doors to partners who would want to invest or work with the cooperative and help in its operation.”
Mrs. Akuka, president of BBN Cooperative
More BBN Coop parboiled rice should be available for the market in 2023. The BBN cooperative set a target to produce at least 10, 000 bags of parboiled rice for the next production campaign starting December 2022. Brand new packaging bags of 25 kg will be available to buyers and will clearly identify BBN Coop parboiled rice product to customers. BBN Coop is fully equipped to produce more if needed; the main challenge—as with all cooperatives—will be the limited capacity of the cooperative, to access external funding sources such as bank loans to be able to buy and sell more.
“The rice produced by the women parboilers of BBN cooperative competes well with the quality of rice that is being imported. In the context where imported rice is expensive, buyers should turn to locally produced rice for a fairer price.”
Raphael Asuure, SOCODEVI’s team leader for the PROCED project in Ghana.
BBN COOP, OR THE WILLINGNESS FOR A CHANGE
The creation of this cooperative in 2020 demonstrates the women’s willingness to work together to improve their living conditions and facilitate access to inputs, rice parboiling (post-harvest processing) equipment, and expertise. The BBN Cooperative is involved in parboiled rice processing and commercialization for its members. The cooperative’s two milling facilities have also been made available to non-member farmers and other third-party users.
SOCODEVI’s support is provided through the PROCED project, funded by Global Affairs Canada. The project goal is to improve the living conditions of cooperative member households—and especially women—in targeted regions of Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Ghana, to promote women’s empowerment, and to contribute to developing the cooperative enterprise.