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Gambia: Palm Oil Refinery in the Making

A new company, Gambia Vegetable Oil Company will soon start to operate a palm oil refinery in The Gambia. This was revealed by the company's General manager Mr. Kishor in an exclusive interview with Foroyaa last week at the factory at Oyster Creek (Denton) Bridge near Banjul. The company is jointly owned with three other Gambians.

Kishor said the company will concentrate on refining palm oil but also engage in soya beans and solvent groundnut oil refining in the near future. Mr. Kishor noted that the raw materials needed for the refining of palm oil is crude oil and will be imported from Malaysia and Indonesia.

He indicated that the palm oil, if refined, will be sold in the Gambia for local consumption but that 70% will be exported to other African countries because of the low consumption of palm oil in The Gambia. Mr. Kishor said that the refining process will soon start, noting that the key persons for operating the machines will come from India but the local people will be trained later. He indicated that in Soya bean refining the raw material will be brought from Argentina or China and for that of the solvent groundnut from Senegal and Nigeria. Mr. Kishor said the main purpose of the company is to get the low cost of oil and that also crude oil will be imported in order to have good quality refining oil.