Exporters prepare for EU market

Accra, Oct. 10, GNA - The increasing number of food alerts being received from trading partners in the European Union might threaten the exports of some non-traditional products into that region, Mr Collins Boateng, Executive Secretary of the Export Promotion Council said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the 2nd Exporter Forum in Accra, Mr Boateng said the Council had received products complaints, mostly concerning aflatoxins, from partners in Brussels, Spain and Italy. The EU is expected to issue a draft report on the situation in late October.

While waiting for the report, Mr Boateng said the GEPC together with the Ghana Standards Board and the Food and Drugs Board and other agencies had begun taking remedial action to correct the anomaly in order to sustain the country's exports.

Already, the Food and Drugs Board had conducted site audits of the premises of some 30 companies to ensure compliance to the required standards of the EU market.

A programme is also being instituted to get all exporting companies registered to know the products in which each one of them deal. Mr Boateng said the institutional committee's next line of action would be determined by the content of the report but expressed the hope that everything would be done to stem the problem. In a speech read on her behalf, Mrs Gifty Ohene-Konadu, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry said government would continue to seek collaborations of all stakeholders to create a congenial environment for export trade.

She said it was necessary that business executives informed policy makers of the practical experiences acquired in their line of business to make the environment more-friendly to export products competitively. Mrs Ohene-Konadu urged the exporters to improve their companies' brand image to become marketable and visible in the international market.

In addition, they must seek information available to them through the Internet.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Export Promotion Council will recognize twenty-nine export companies with various awards for export products under its National Awards for Export Achievement Scheme. The scheme was introduced in 1989 as part of the national agenda to develop and promote the non-traditional export sector. 10 Oct. 07