GhanaVeg helping Ghana to overturn EU ban on vegetable exports
The Ghana Vegetable (GhanaVeg) Programme, which was introduced by the Dutch government, is working through the horticultural value chain to help Ghana overturn a European Union (EU) ban on exports of selected vegetables.
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The EU last year banned the exports of chillies, aubergine and other vegetables from Ghana to stop the introduction of pests into the ecosystem of the EU.
Also affected are gourds and Asian vegetables.
According to the Senior Business Adviser of GhanaVeg, Mrs Sheila Assibey-Yeboah, Ghana has, since the ban, lost more than $2 million worth of exports of selected vegetables to the EU market.
She said it was to address the challenges that the Dutch government introduced the GhanaVeg programme to help the country deal with phytosanitary challenges, boost production and increase exports.
“GhanaVeg is contributing a lot, supporting the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Food and Agriculture, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, as well as the logistics side, such as Aviance and Air Ghana, and research bodies to get to the field to see how best to fight the pest menace,” Mrs Assibey-Yeboah said at the opening of the Vegetable Fair in Accra yesterday.
The vegetable exhibition and seminars
The two-day vegetable fair is being held at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel and has brought together more than 35 exhibitors from the vegetable value chain, including input and irrigation equipment suppliers, producers, processers and buyers, to showcase their products and services.
The EU is expected to audit Ghana’s export readiness in September this year to assess its readiness and Mrs Assibey-Yeboah expressed the hope that there would be something to show for the efforts already put in place, adding that the GhanaVeg Secretariat would ask the EU authorities to allow for some trial exports as a way of assessing the standards.
She said the exhibition would also feature seminars on how to improve farm management and quality of produce and also promote networking among the players in the sub-sector.
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Trade ministry endorsement
The Director of Logistics and Value Chain at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Papa Kow Bartels, said the government was encouraged by interventions by GhanaVeg and The Netherlands, given the importance of vegetables to Ghana’s economy.
He said the Trade Related Assistance and Quality Enabling (TRAQUE) programme was expected to equip the country’s standards and regulatory authorities to test for the quality of vegetables and exports before they left the shores of Ghana.
A representative of The Netherlands Embassy in Ghana, Ms Mariska Lammers, said the embassy selected the vegetables sub-sector because of its mutual benefits to the two countries.
She said Ghana had a lot of potential in the vegetable sub-sector which could be harnessed to facilitate trade between Ghana and the EU.
Ms Lammers said the programme had done a lot of work through stakeholders to address the issues that led to the ban, but a lot of work remained to be done, especially at the farm level, involving mainly small-holder farmers.