Samira Bawumia leads delegation to Qatar
The wife of the Vice-President, Samira Bawumia, is in Doha, Qatar, where she is attending an International Horticulture Expo to seek investment opportunities.
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She also participated in activities to celebrate Ghana’s National Day in that country.
The Expo which started in October last year, is expected to end on March 28, 2024.
Among the entourage of Mrs Bawumia who begun her four-day visit last Saturday, are officials of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), led by its CEO, Osafohene Dr Afua Asabea Asare; the Ghana Tourism Authority’s (GTA) Akwasi Agyemang, and Ghana Ambassador in Doha, Mohammed Nurudeen Ismaila.
Others are some female entrepreneurs, including five women icons who were crowned last year by GEPA for their significant contribution to society through the manufacture and production of quality made-in-Ghana goods and services.
Familiarisation tour
Mrs Bawumia and her entourage paid a familiarisation tour of Baladna, an agricultural company that raises livestocks and also produces dairy products.
Baladna is one of the largest companies in Qatar that provides 100 per cent dairy needs of the people.
It was established in 2017 when Saudi Arabia suspended diplomatic ties with Qatar and other Gulf countries and, therefore, ceased to supply dairy products to Qatar.
The Head of Business Development of the company, Francis Higgins, told the delegation that his outfit, which started production with the importation of 4,000 cows from the US, now has 24,000 cows that were able to satisfy the country’s needs, adding that “we intend to grow and expand on our production”.
He said the cows were a special breed noted for quality milk production, including lactose free milk.
Production
The Manager of Frams Technology and Development, Ms Miranda Timmerman, showed members of the delegation a unit of the farms where the cows were delivered of their calves and weaned of their milk within a day’s feed of their mothers’ colostrum.
She said the calves were fed on milk powder to control their nutrition and development in order to produce enough quality milk for consumption.
Ms Timmerman also said that a nutritionist in the US was responsible for the diet of the cows and that “half of the breeding is in the feeding”.
Each cow, she said, supplied the company with 37 litres of milk a day, while bulls were slaughtered upon maturity and sent for processing in other factories.
Mrs Bawumia and her team were also shown how the cows were milked and how their health was scientifically monitored using advanced technology.
Vehicles on which the delegation travelled to the sites were washed and disinfected automatically before entry into each section.
Impression
Mrs Bawumia, who was later presented with a carving of a cow as a souvenir after the tour, expressed satisfaction over the operations of the company.
She said there were lots of lessons Ghana could learn from what the company was doing in Qatar that could be replicated in the country “in our efforts to improve on the fortunes of our hardworking farmers”.
