The First Vice President of the Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Exporters (FAGE), Mrs. Marjorie Valerie Quist Abdin, said Ghana’s mango industry as well as industries dealing in fruits and vegetables risk being export restricted if a dossier on self-imposed protocols that ensures the required quality is not prepared and submitted to the European Union by September 1, 2019.
According to Mrs. Abdin, the news was not new to them as it has been in the system for a while. “This news was announced to us during the mango week celebration and immediately, I took the decision on calling on the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to work with the Mango Round Table to put together a dossier to meet the September 1 deadline”.
Mrs. Abdin was speaking on Rite FM’s Morning Show with host Austin Ofori Addo on why fruits and vegetable exporters are likely to be restricted from exporting their goods to the EU and how they can put temporary measures to ensure that the dossier is prepared before the deadline.
She noted that even though the EU has been giving several red flags, the necessary stakeholders are failing to address the issues.
“Probably about four years ago, the EU warned Ghana by the interventions and all the red flags they have been raising against the vegetables that we have been exporting to the EU, unfortunately nothing was done about these warnings and ultimately Ghana was banned on the exportation of some selected vegetables including chili” She said.
Mrs. Abdin disclosed that FAGE in the year 2017 presented a strategic plan to MOFA on how to curb Bacterial black spot Disease but FAGE has not received any feedback since then. She highlighted some suggestions which are in the strategic plan and that include an interconnected system among Agric Extension Officers who would advise Farmers on what to do when they call in for answers, an Emergency Call Centre which would be used by Farmers to make emergency calls to Agric Extension Officers whenever they detect Bacterial Black spot and a private company who specializes in spraying of insecticides to spray affected farms.
Mrs. Abdin indicated that the Hot Water Technology cannot be used as a temporary measure but rather as a long-term measure since currently it is not feasible in Ghana because there are not enough Hot Water Facilities and thus do not have the capacity to be effective in managing several postharvest diseases and physiological disorders.
The Hot Water Technology is commercially applied to several fruits and vegetables in order to reduce decay development and maintain fruit quality after subsequent prolonged storage and shelf-life. This technology cleans and disinfects the freshly harvested produce at a relatively high temperature of about 45-62°C, with the produce passing over revolving brushes for a very short time of about 15-25 seconds.
She disclosed that the Mango Industry directly employs over 6000 workers, and that most Mango farmers do not add value to their produce. She said that a chunk of these farmers do not follow right protocol and modalities due to the fact that, strictly following the right protocol is expensive and as such, most farmers would practice ad- hoc spraying.
Mrs. Abdin indicated that this problem can be solved if these farmers are assured of ready markets as they would weigh the Pros and Cons of following the right protocol and being assured of getting ready market to not following the right protocol and thus leading to great losses as these mangoes would be rejected by EU and ultimately the farmer would run at a loss as mangoes are highly perishable goods.
She added that currently, FAGE and MOFA are working together to establish a traceability system that can trace every exporter to where that exporter sourced the products from.
