Deal #5316

The company's nucleus farm is 1,363 acres (568ha). The company in 2004 acquired an additional 205 acres (83ha) at Gushie for its office accommodation and mango processing plant. The area in operation derived from the Mapathon 2020, 691ha, is too big and most likely includes smallholder activities. JRC delineated an area of 200ha. It observed commercial crop patterns since 2011 and probably before.

Future possible crops include: Butternut squash, citrus, maize. Some of the land will be a designated biodiversity zone.

All the activities of ITFC (nucleus farm, factory, outgrowers) are inactive. The company faced recurring bush fires, farmers ignored the mangoes, productivity was low due to choice of mango breed, seasonality, insects.

In an interview with ITFC (2013), it was revealed that initial payments amounted to GH¢ 6,000 (part-payment for the land in 1999) for the 1,363 acres (568 hectares). The additional land for the factory was acquired at a cost of GH¢ 10,000 with an annual rent of GH¢ 100 per annum subject to periodic reviews.

In clusters of 20 acres. Limited to 120 outgrowers only. Currently ITFC has 1,200 outgrowers over 1,200acres (500hectares) of land (i.e. 100 mango trees/acre/outgrower farmer). The company initially targeted 2000 outgrowers but realised that output fell below expectations and hence it suspended expansion in order to address low yields. As part of their investments into the outgrower schemes, ITFC Ltd reserved the sole right to supply mango seedlings, water, water storage tanks, manure, tools and other technical support to outgrowers, and to be sole purchasers of their proceeds until the cost of production was fully recovered. Under the outgrower scheme, ITFC Ltd fully pre-finances the cost of mango planting and management until the third or fifth year when it may be possible to commence harvesting and sale.