Article on pineapple farmers created false impression
The attention of the Sea-Freight Pineapple Exporters of Ghana (SPEG) has been drawn to an article in the January 4, 2014 issue of the Daily Graphic, written by one Joe Frazier.
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SPEG is made up of pineapple exporters in Ghana and as such represents their interests. The article refers to a meeting of the “managing directors of leading pineapple farms who have formed an exporters council.”
The article portrays a false unfounded impression of pineapple exporters in the country as mean and exploitative persons who pay low wages to their workers as a result of which poverty is their lot, while the exporters and their families live in luxury enjoying the fine things of life which have accrued to them from the sweat and toil of their workers. The group is described as a “cartel” which again is another falsity.
The pineapple industry has been on the decline over the past nine years substantially because of the introduction of a new pineapple variety known as MD2 in the industry worldwide. The inputs required for production are expensive as well as post–harvest management.
The agronomic requirements are very high and must be complied with strictly for good fruits to meet the high standards acceptable for sale in the European market which is the main destination of pineapple exported from Ghana.
The absence of long-term finance for the pineapple industry, like all other agricultural enterprises in Ghana, has resulted in reducing the industry to a pale shadow of its previous enviable state prior to the introduction of the MD2 variety. The pineapple export business has been unrewarding for years and the review meeting referred to in the article is part of the ongoing efforts by the exporters to find solutions to bring it back to the path of growth and profitability and to utilise the huge potential the sector has.
It is disappointing that at this critical time when strategies are being evolved, erroneous information is being put into the public domain through this article, which could result in workers agitation with its undesirable consequences for the industry and generally undermine efforts for interventions by public agencies in the agricultural sector.
The description of pineapple exporters as a “cartel” who meet “regularly to fix prices and draw an agenda on how to lobby the Minister of Agriculture and the banks” exposes the intentions of the writer, to cause disaffection for members of SPEG. The prices of exported pineapples are largely determined by the European buyers and not the producers. The Ghanaian pineapple export industry has negligible influence on the price of the commodity due to its small share of the market worldwide and the control of logistics and inputs by foreigners.
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Diligent work by the writer on the state of the pineapple industry would have brought its state and present challenges to his attention and he would have avoided repeating popular misinformation about the entrepreneurs in the industry in the article which has denigrated the image of members of the association and caused them embarrassment.
We hope that this rejoinder will be published with the same prominence as the article in issue.
Failure to do this will compel SPEG to take further action.
Stephen Mintah
General Manager
Sea-Freight Pineapple Exporters of Ghana (SPEG)