Ban on Ghanaian mangoes to South Africa still in force

Accra, July 31, GNA - The ban on mangoes from Ghana to South Africa is still in place, Dr Braimah Harunah, a Senior Research Scientist, Crop Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research said on Tuesday.

The ban, he said, instituted since 2005 was due to the threat that the fruit fly posed to the mango industry in that country. He explained that the fruit fly lays eggs in the young mango fruit and as it grows the larvae grows with it and because of weather conditions the fly would multiply in that country.

"There is however an emerging market in the European Union for which farmers needed to work harder to capture, since the fly could not grow in European temperate regions," he said.

Dr. Braimah was speaking to about 150 mango farmers drawn from the Greater Accra, Volta, Eastern and the Brong Ahafo Regions who are attending a two-day workshop in Accra on the "Emerging Challenges in Contemporary Mango Plantation Management."

It was organised by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), with the aim of providing a platform for discussion on the issues facing the mango industry and find solutions to them. Dr. Braimah said out of 170,000 metric tones of mangoes valued at more than 200 million dollars imported into the European Union in 2004, Ghana's share was only 220 metric tonnes representing only one per cent.

Although Ghana was not among the top 40 mango exporters, the industry was pointing in the right direction and if more attention was given to that sector mango would become a major foreign exchange earner for the country, he added.

Dr. Braimah said this could be achieved if strategic measures were put in place to prevent diseases like mealy bug, Anthracnose, animal damage and destruction by fruit flies.

The development of the mango sector, he said, could bring about reduction in poverty, alleviate hunger and improve nutrition, check rural-urban migration as well as provide the needed foreign exchange. He advised the farmers to study the market and cultivate the varieties that the European market wanted such as the Champaign Mangoes since the demand for Keitt or otherwise called the green mangoes was waning.

The Research Scientist also advised the farmers, to nurture and grow strong cooperative societies and develop strong research systems with the research institutions so that they would help detect and combat the emerging diseases fast.

He said CRI was liaising with Biotechnology, Nuclear and Agricultural Research Institute (BNARI) to find out if the mangoes could be radiated before being exported to ensure a longer shelf life. Mr Samuel Asante-Mensah, Country Director, ADRA said the workshop was the last of such workshops to be organised by ADRA with support form USAID.

He said the ADRA-USAID food security project had ran for the past ten years with evidence of expansion in the mango plantation development.

"The project can boast of an emerging mango belt that has evolved along the Dodowa-Somanya highway and increasingly extending to other parts of the savannah areas," he said.

Mr Alfred Osei, USAID/ Ghana Food Aid Specialist said the US government continued to support the growth of Ghana's agriculture through the USAID/Ghana's Trade and Investment promotion for a Competitive Export Economy (TIPCEE) "This programme is assisting government and the private sector to improve the enabling environment for the development of the horticultural sector. 31 July 07