Guinness Ghana honours 18 sorghum farmers

Guinness Ghana Breweries PLC, Ghana’s leading total beverage business and a subsidiary of Diageo PLC, has honoured deserving sorghum farmers and aggregators in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, and North East Regions at a recognition and appreciation event held in Tamale.

The event, which recognized 18 deserving farmers, aggregators and groups, forms part of the beverage company’s efforts of investing in sustainable agriculture and brewing operations.

Guinness Ghana’s Local Raw Material (LRM) intervention started in 2012 in line with the Government’s policy initiative to incorporate the use of local raw materials in the production of our alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The company currently sources over 60% of its raw materials locally, from 12% in 2012.

Guinness Ghana uses sorghum brewing of its premium brands such as Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, ABC Lager, Guinness Smooth and Malta Guinness.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Managing Director of GGBPLC, Helene Weesie noted, “we have been energized to invest in the cultivation of sorghum, re-engineer our brands to use more sorghum as well as innovation of brands that solely uses sorghum.”

“All these would not be possible if we do not have the hard-working farmers gathered here toiling every day to provide us the raw material.”

She added, “additionally, we are working with over 30,000 farmers across 11 of the 16 regions in Ghana. According to a study by the Bureau of Integrated and Rural Development of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), this programme is impacting over 210,000 beneficiaries across the value chain.

Delivering the keynote address, Northern Regional Minister. Mr. Shani Alhassan Shaibu, applauded Guinness Ghana for their local raw material initiative.

Mumuni Wandusim (Upper East), Mr. Ali Damani (Upper East), Dery Laziroes (Upper West) and Peter Jbegbo (Upper West) were recognised as the best sorghum farmers.

All the winners took home an assortment of prizes including motorcycles, tarpaulins, and assorted products from GGBL.

The list of winners are as follows:

Upper West