Interested parties are encouraged to post comments to the material presented by clicking on the links at the end of each section. Alternatively, the project sponsor may be contacted at:
John R. Gunter
Phone: (870) 974-0155
E-fax: (425) 660-2934
E-mail: management@amerigui.com.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you find the project interesting and worthwhile.
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A. Reserving of the Property—On May 9th, 2008, Gunter Food Products, Ltd. signed a Protocol of Accord with the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Finance, formally securing the rice plains, all commercial buildings, housing units, the rice mill, and some farm machinery currently situated on the property to Gunter Food Products. The signing ceremony was recorded and was broadcasted on Guinean and regional news programs the following day.
B. Project Company-- The local operating company will be “AMERIGUI PLANTATION”, chartered as a Guinean corporation in early 2006. Amerigui Plantation established its corporate bank accounts with EcoBank Guinea in April 2006.
C. Operational Objectives—The primary purpose of the project is the commercial production and milling of rice and feed grains for domestic sale as bagged milled rice and bagged poultry feed. A 500-bird/week broiler (poultry for meat) operation is also planned, which will serve as a model for Guinean growers of poultry and eggs.
Experimentation in fresh and saline water shrimp and fish production will be performed. Once the production model and marketing aspects have been refined these aquaculture crops will be expanded to commercial scales of production.
The demand for feed in Guinea is very high, but offering feed products also makes effective use of rice bran, a rice milling by-product very high in nutrition. Rice hulls may be used as bedding material for confined poultry operations and later collected and spread on the rice farm as an excellent source of fertilizer.
D. Sources of Materials, Equipment, and Supplies--All crop inputs, farm machinery, commercial vehicles, grain drying and storage facilities, feed milling equipment, etc. will be imported from the USA. Aside from fuels, agricultural lime, and some labor there is little available for purchase in Guinea suitable for these farming and milling activities. Exoneration from duties on most items is included in the long-term lease agreement with the government of Guinea.
E. Location of the Project--One reason I am attracted to this site in particular is its close proximity to the private ocean port at Kamsar. This port is operated by Compagnie des Bauxite de Guinee (CBG), which is a joint venture between Alcoa and Alcan, the huge American and Canadian aluminum companies, and the government of Guinea. The Port of Kamsar is not too busy and good road access is in place to Monchon, which lies just 50 miles to the south by road (only 12 miles by air).
A CBG supply vessel commuting between Wilmington, North Carolina and Kamsar, Guinea every six weeks facilitates ocean freight shipments of containerized supplies and farm machinery being imported from the USA. CBG has generously awarded Amerigui Plantation priority placement of its materials aboard the CBG vessel due to the developmental nature of the business model.
Kamsar will also serve as the nearest place to get groceries, purchase fuels, and visit a restaurant on occasion. In contrast, the capital city of Conakry and its port are about 180 miles south of Monchon and are very congested. All machinery and supplies will be imported through the Port of Kamsar, so moving machinery, materials, and supplies to Monchon will present fewer logistical challenges.
F. Products Offered for Sale
1. Bagged milled rice will be sold to known rice wholesalers and the huge international bauxite and iron ore mining companies operating in Guinea. These mining companies employ about 2,000 workers each and provide rice and other basic foodstuffs to employees as a portion of their compensation packages.
Guinea produces about 200,000 metric tons of rice each year, most of which is consumed near the site of production. About 400,000 metric tons of rice is imported annually from Asia, so the idea of increased commercial rice production is very attractive to the Government of Guinea and its people.
Guineans have a strong loyalty to domestically produced goods, and capitalizing on that cultural trait also supports the business model. A premium is freely paid for rice of local origin over imported Asian rice much higher in quality. Capitalizing on this loyalty for domestic products will be instrumental to the commercial success of Amerigui Plantation's agribusiness enterprises.
2. Bagged poultry feed made from corn, grain sorghum, rice bran, soybean meal, and other available materials will be sold directly to commercial poultry producers. Commercial poultry production is very small at this time, but this is due to the scarcity of feed. Growers must now send trucks several hundred miles to Mali, Burkina Faso, and Cote I’voire for bagged corn for feed, so the current cost of feed is prohibitively high. Feed quality is also rather low since sources for protein are scarce in the area.
Once AMERIGUI PLANTATION establishes a reliable track record of providing feed to poultry producers, it is likely that a Guinean commercial poultry producer will set up a new operation near Monchon so that we may work more synergistically.
G. Terms of Payment--Terms of payment will be advance deposit into the company’s bank account, or cash for goods picked up FOB mill. Sales must likely be denominated in Guinean franc, but this can be converted into USD through banks or private money changers.
H. Management and Staff—I’ll personally be on the site and managing the project, as is the case for all farmers here in the USA and other developed countries. Generally speaking, western farm owners and operators perform the same tasks as employed labor. It is best that all persons be cross-trained to carry out any duties on any given day.
There is little about farming that I have not done already, and done successfully. Executing the development of land and water resources; planting, cultivating, and harvesting the crops; drying, storing, and milling the crops; etc. are all routine tasks for me. Living and working in a third-world environment poses challenges, but none that cannot be mitigated in some suitable manner.
I feel fortunate a few years ago to have met a very capable, energetic, and amiable Ghanaian farmer with exceptional management skills. This fellow is about my age (mid-forties) and will join the operation at Monchon. My plan is to carry out the land and water resource development and farming tasks between the two of us, plus maybe one additional hand-picked Ghanaian, until the planted area and mill management activities grow in scale and require additional workers.
Some Guinean labor will be used to hand-rogue the rice fields free of any indigenous rice varieties that may be present. Guineans will also be employed when the mill is in operation to monitor machinery and handle bags as they are warehoused. These tasks will not really become material until the second year of production, however, since planted acres will remain small until land has been graded and irrigation works are installed. Sweet corn production is also being considered and would necessarily require a substantial amount of local workers for hand harvesting.
A 500-bird per week broiler operation is also planned. This will serve as a model for Guinean growers of poultry and eggs and demonstrate the economics of using Amerigui Plantation feed. Aquaculture crops such as shrimp and fish are planned on an experimental basis until production and marketing systems warrant expansion to a commercial scale.
Guinean workers will be added each season as they become familiar with the machinery and techniques used. Farm, grain handling, and milling machinery is dangerous and the risk of accidents is very high for inexperienced workers.
I. Land and Water Resource Development--Development of the land is necessary before “western-style” planting can take place. The land is currently divided in hundreds of 2-3 acre fields to accommodate the Asian cultural practice of transplanting rice seedlings, but redesigning and precision grading the fields into rectangular 80-160 acre fields will be necessary to facilitate western mechanical farming methods.
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The tractor and scrapers pictured above are representative of the sort of machinery required at Monchon to precision grade the rice fields to a uniform grade. Precision graded fields permit more control over irrigation, drainage, and chemical and fertilizer programs.
After fields have been precision graded, about 12-14 high-volume irrigation pumps and miles of underground 15” diameter PVC pipelines with dozens of risers and valves will deliver water to each field. The water depth retained in the canals will be kept high enough to supply the irrigation pumps, but low enough to drain all fields year-round. Through the installation of additional dams and header canals approximately 20% of the land area may be irrigated by gravity, eliminating the need to set up and operate expensive pumping stations.
J. Grain Drying and Storage Facilities—Grain Storage and drying facilities will be installed to handle the paddy rice production and prepare it for milling. There are currently no grain drying, storage, or handling facilities on the site. This investment will be the largest single expenditure in the first two or three years. It costs about $4.00 per bushel to construct the metal drying and storage tanks, but they last for decades with minimal maintenance. Every 100 acres of crops in production requires an investment in grain storage of about $40,000-50,000.
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These steel grain tanks, equipped with aeration fans and heaters, are representative of what will be erected at Monchon to dry and store the rice and corn before processing through the mill. The tanks pictured are sufficient to service 500-800 acres of cropland, so approximately this amount of storage will have to be installed each year as land is graded and irrigated and brought into production.
