By Michael Oberteye:
Day two of the ongoing Agrofood Plastprintpack exhibition fair at the Accra International Conference Center has seen more participants turning up to familiarize with what the exhibitioners have to offer. The fair is aimed at offering opportunities to those who find themselves in the value chain of food processing and packaging the chance to familiarize themselves with modern technologies.
However, most participants who spoke to Rite news expressed disappointment at how expensive the costs involved were. Speaking to Rite news, Miss Charity Selorm of Lotus Flour Lab who says she aspires to package palm oil in sachets on a small scale was looking for companies that would give her that service as well as the machinery.
She got what she wanted but was overwhelmed with the huge cost for both the services and the machinery involved.
A representative of Da Goulli Agro Company limited who engages in the cultivation of tuber crops and exportation processes of tuber crops in Ghana also told Rite news Michael Oberteye that his expectations for the exhibition have not been met due largely to the high cost of acquiring units of machinery involved in processing their products.
He said this was not good for beginners who may not be able to meet the local markets not to talk of export, adding that this wasn’t helpful in the fight against post harvest losses. He said acquiring the machinery for mass processing and packaging would create the avenue for the employment of young unemployed people.
But responding to these, Mr. Francis Omoni of Bosch Nigeria while admitting the high cost of their machinery, said his outfit was not only engaged in the sale of machinery but also sits in an advisory role. He said they also advised and engaged their clients and advised on the right technologies for their businesses, adding however that Bosch products and services were affordable in several countries.
The fair seeks to encourage the processing of agro products into finished products for either domestic consumption or for export and runs from the 1st to the 3rd of December 2015. The technologies come in various forms of processing either huge agricultural products into smaller units or refining them into processed form and repackaging them for either domestic consumption or for export.
Source: ritefmonline.org
