The once lucrative and vibrant salt industry in Apam has collapsed. A tour of the area by e.tv Ghana�s Beatrice Baiden reveals that despite the industry�s huge investment potential, it has folded up.
Apam is a coastal area known for its abundant salt deposits. Unfortunately, production is unable to satisfy demand let alone successfully compete with global producers.
The once vibrant salt industry in Apam is now in shambles. Equipment there has been left at the mercy of the weather, to deteriorate.
The warehouse that stored the salt is falling apart and the administrative office is engulfed in dust and not in any proper state for use.
The vast land once hosted the �white gold� of Apam. It is now deserted and serves as home for crabs. This has also turned the venue into a crab hunting ground for children.
The pans which were constructed to produce and harvest the salt have been taken over by weeds and filth.
Some fish traders in the area have also found new use for the deserted land. They spread harvested fingerlings, popularly known as �Keta school boys� on the ground to dry before they are gathered for sale.
72 year old Joseph Akunor Acquahful, a mechanic and care taker at the Apam Salt Industry tells e.tv Ghana news that he has been working with the industry for the past 18 years.
Mr Acquahful says, �When I was young and even before I completed school in 1957, salt production was on going. When I joined the company, we harvested a lot of salt until recently when business has collapsed.�
Kwame Ackon another worker in one of the salt industries located in Apam, Ayetsi Kwei Salt, says production has declined drastically over the past years. This he attributes to changes in the weather pattern.
The chief of the area, Obotantam Edu-Effrim expressed his dissatisfaction with the current situation.
He explained to e.tv Ghana news how the once vibrant industry just folded up and how several appeals to successive governments to rescue the situation have all fallen on death ears.
According to him, �There was a heavy downpour of rain that flooded the whole place and for that reason; a lot of the manufacturers lost their capital. We�ve made several appeals to various governments like the latter days of Kufuor�s administration and the early days of His Excellency Atta Mills administration and nothing came out of it.�
Salt production in Ghana started in the 19th century and, aside from fishing, it is a major economic activity of people along most of the country�s coastline.
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