Chamber of Agribusiness urges price cuts across agric value chain
The Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana (CAG) has called for immediate, structured price reductions across the agricultural value chain to ensure that the macroeconomic gains are equitably distributed and do not remain confined to upstream actors.
This would help boost household purchasing power, stimulate food demand and support national goals on nutrition, poverty reduction and inflation control.
In a statement copied to Graphic Business on Wednesday, the Chamber commended the National Association of Seed Traders and Agro-input Dealers (NASTAG) for its recent decision to reduce seed prices for farmers, describing the move as timely and economically justified.
According to the CAG, Ghana was currently benefiting from a combination of declining global petroleum prices and a stronger, more stable Ghana cedi against major international currencies.
These developments, it said, have significantly reduced costs related to transportation, mechanisation, imports and logistics within the agricultural sector.
“From a technical economic standpoint, the transmission mechanism from these macro-level improvements to end-user pricing is both direct and quantifiable,” the statement said.
The Chamber explained that lower fuel prices reduced transport and logistics costs from farmgate to market, while the appreciation of the cedi had cut the landed cost of imported agro-inputs such as fertilisers, machinery and spare parts by an estimated 15 to 20 per cent in real terms.
It further noted that empirical evidence from input-output models showed a high cost pass-through effect in agrifood systems, suggesting that savings at the import and wholesale levels should be reflected in retail and consumer prices.
In line with the government’s agenda of making food affordable and accessible, the Chamber appealed to key industry players, including fertiliser importers, agro-machinery dealers, commodity processors, input retailers and logistics providers to implement transparent and proportionate price reductions based on current cost structures.
“We are calling for a nationwide recalibration of pricing across seeds, fertilisers, machinery rentals, processed staples and fresh produce, to ensure that macroeconomic gains are equitably shared and not confined to upstream actors,” the statement said.
The Chamber also proposed the establishment of a Sectoral Price Monitoring Desk, in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), to track compliance, assess welfare impacts and provide data-driven feedback for policy decisions.
The statement described the current economic climate as a critical opportunity for the sector to demonstrate corporate responsibility, solidarity and commitment to national development.
“Let us collectively turn macroeconomic stability into tangible household benefits,” it added.