Coronavirus: Agribusiness posts 61.2% revenue loss due to pandemic – Report

Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana (CAG) has said agribusinesses in Ghana have lost 61.2 percent of their monthly revenues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest Agribusiness Sector Survey Report 2020.

According to the report, small-scale agribusiness firms in the country were the hardest hit with a revenue shortfall of about 77.4 percent.

Large scale firms, on the other hand, suffered a 55.4 percent revenue loss, with medium scale agribusinesses remaining in the middle. They recorded about 75.2 percent monthly losses in revenues.

“One of the major challenges in the agriculture sector included rampant land litigation issues which threatens the investments of businessmen and eventually, leads them to abandon the land, resulting in huge losses,” the report noted.

Meanwhile, Director of Research at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), in an interview with GhanaWeb, said it is important for government to create an enabling environment to encourage investors to make holdings into the agriculture sector.

He added that the agriculture sector is one that can still thrive in this period of the coronavirus pandemic considering food production and availability are basic necessities of life.

Additionally, the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service in April 2020 show that the country’s largest employer – agriculture sector – grew by 4.6 percent in 2019, a 0.2 percentage point decline from that of 2018, making it the slowest growth since recording 6.1 percent growth in 2017, from a previous 2.9 percent it recorded the previous year.

For 2019, a growth of 4.6 percent was also the least recorded in all three sectors of the economy, as industry and services grew at 6.4 percent and 7.6 percent respectively.