The Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) Limited is back in full operation after routine maintenance works on the two processing plants which were temporarily shut down in January this year.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Tema, the Senior Public Relations Manager of the CPC, Mr James Ekow Rhule, said with the completion of the maintenance works, the workers, numbering about 80, who were asked by management to go on leave had been recalled.
The management of the CPC, in a circular dated January 25, 2016, directed that all staff of the company should stay at home as part of their annual leave with effect from January 25, 2016 while the factories remained shut.
Following that notification, some of the workers and a section of the public raised issues to the effect that the company was in a crisis and that the temporary shutdown of the two processing plants was evidence of a collapsing cocoa industry caused by failed government policies in the cocoa sector.
Not even assurances by the management of the CPC and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) would assuage the fears of some of the affected workers, with some fearing that the temporary shutdown was part of efforts to lay off some workers
History
Established in 1965, the CPC has three plants, comprising two processing factories and a confectionery factory.
The cocoa processing factories have an annual throughput of 64,500 tonnes of premium Ghana cocoa beans which are processed into cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, cocoa cake and cocoa powder.
Full Operation
Mr Rhule said with the completion of the maintenance works, the factory was in full operation, while all the affected workers had been recalled and were presently at post.
He said the first batch of workers resumed work on February 19, 2016, adding that “as we speak all of them are back”.
He said the public should rest assured that the company was not in distress, as speculated earlier, emphasising that the shutdown was a normal routine to ensure that the machines operated optimally.
He said a lot of issues were raised as a result of that, including allegations that the CPC did not have cocoa beans to process.
“The reason basically was for maintenance and once the maintenance is over, the workers have resumed work,” he said.
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