Entering Apapa Bulk Terminal Limited (ABTL) last Wednesday was neither simple nor complex. Visitors are often mandated to pass through some protocol for their own safety and that of firms operating within the terminal.
I passed through the protocol and moved to the Golden Sugar Company’s entry point. Visitors are asked to use the hand washing and sterilising machines. If you wish to move further into the refinery, then you have to dip your shoes in some chemical to detoxify it. At any point at the factory, workers are conscious of their hygiene.
Little wonder Golden Sugar Company Limited, a subsidiary of Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN), recently won ‘The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Awards’ in Nice, France.
At the factory, production is zoned basically because of hygiene issues. The factory has the low, the middle and the high hygiene areas. Low hygiene area is where raw sugar is being processed. At this stage, it is easier to recycle sugar in case anything happens.
But this is not the case at the middle hygiene area, where sugar is already packaged. On the other hand, anyone can see sugar at the high hygiene area.
The factory has a metal detector, which ensures that any metal or foreign body that penetrates into the sugar pack is rejected. The detector closes the system once it detects any foreign body in the sugar, explained Veronica Kalu-Ufe, quality assurance manager.
Kalu-Ufe said the management of the section checked the detector at four-hour intervals to ensure that it was still working efficiently.
Like many other manufacturers, Golden Sugar has a distinct way of stitching its packaging materials to guard against faking by unscrupulous elements.
At the factory, you will find 56 microwaves and all sugar packs must pass through at least 36.
One thing that stood out at the factory was that visitors were often mandated to put on all the safety kits without exception. You would also be reminded that since the factory produces sugar, which is food, hygiene is not compromised.
John Ioannis Maniatis, deputy general manager, Golden Sugar Company, explained that the sweetener maker could not have got the award if it was not adhering to international specifications.
“The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Awards is a major international award given to companies in developing countries that excel in food safety,” he said.
“We are the only company from Africa that met the requirements. The award is an initiative of major manufacturing companies that constitute our main customer body, with the intention of incentivizing companies, again mostly to the developing world for adopting world food standards,” he explained.
He said it was a culmination of many years of efforts as it entailed a lot of investments in material and non-materials.
“It means we not only meet the regular national standards, which we do not take for granted, but we exceed it. That communicates to the Nigerian consuming public that the products produced by us are of extreme quality.”
He explained that competition would often force people to try to excel, urging competitors to follow suit by ensuring they met international specifications at all times.
“We hope that this excellence will be equally adopted and emulated by our competitors in order to ensure that when it comes to sugar, both in ingredients and products, all the suppliers are truly excellent,” he said.
He stated that the award entry was a completely voluntary exercise as the company asked to be audited and assessed.
“We did that because we believe this kind of challenge makes us better. We are very well known to be suppliers of first quality products. We have known that pursuing excellence and high quality are extremely rewarding to the company,” he noted.
He explained that the company had the latest and most modern refinery in Nigeria and had the luxury of adopting the latest technologies.
“Our sugar does exhibit certain characteristics that are unique,” he said.
“The first of those characteristics is the whiteness of our sugar. Our sugar is known to be super white, not only by Nigerians but by players in the international market,” he said.
He stated that the market recognised Golden Sugar product as the whitest in the market.
Another distinguishing feature, he said, was the dryness of the sugar.
“Our sugar is much dryer than any other sugar in the market. Again, this is a result of our adoption of latest technologies as we erected our factory lately. Dryness of sugar gives a considerable advantage to users of sugar in the market,” he said.
On raw sugar, he said all sugar refineries in Nigeria sourced their raw sugar from the international market.
“Most of the raw sugar used in Nigeria originates from Latin America. However, the government has mandated backward integration, whereby all sugar refiners are mandated to invest in backward integration by ensuring that sugarcane is locally grown, crushed and used as raw materials for our refineries. We look forward to a near future where our raw materials will come from Nigerian-grown sugar.”
He pointed out that Golden Sugar’s Sunti plantation had already started producing raw sugar.
“This year, we look forward to harvesting approximately 6,000 tons. This quantity will be multiplied exponentially going forward as more and more cane is planted,” he added.
ODINAKA ANUDU
