The economy can earn over US$25 million in a year from vegetable exports.
This can be achieved if the government and other relevant state institutions support players in the sector increase production, improve product quality and meet external market requirements, a report by GhanaVeg, a non-governmental organisation committed to the success of the industry, has stated.
The support is needed to increase annual output of the crops whose demand is on the rise in Europe and Asia where climatic conditions make it unfavourable for year-round cultivation, the report, which was presented to the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, noted.
The Chairman of the GhanaVeg Advisory Board, Mr Samuel Asante-Mensah, said in an interview after the launch that, although the government and the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) had realised the export potential of the vegetable industry, efforts geared at realising that potential were not comprehensive enough.
He consequently called for increased resource allocation and technical support to farmers, also those in the value chain and exporters as a whole.
“Vegetable crops are high-value crops. You need only a small area of land to grow crops that will fetch so much money compared to growing say cereal or legume crops. It is one of the areas that a lot more efforts should be put into,” Mr Asante-Mensah, who doubles as the President of the Ghana Institute of Horticulturists (GIH), told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS.
He was speaking to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS after the launch of the Vegetable Business Opportunities Report in Accra on December 3.
The report was launched on the sidelines of the trade show on agro-food, plastic, printing and packaging at the Accra International Conference Center (AICC).
