Finatrade calls on government to transform food crops to cash crops.

Accra, Dec. 20, GNA - Mr John Awuni, Director of Corporate Affairs of Finatrade Group of Companies, on Monday appealed to government to adequatel= y inject funds into the production of food crops in order to diversify the country's exports.

He said Ghana had a comparative advantage and capacity and could become a major exporter of maize, cassava, tomatoes, pineapple, soyabeans, and groundnuts if there was intensive capital investment. Mr Awuni who stated these in a press statement copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the investment in such crops could earn the country more foreign exchange and create more jobs to the Ghanaian youth rather than the continuous increment on tariffs on rice and poultry products. The Corporate Affairs Director said although, Ghana was progressing in rice and poultry production, it would be advantageous to continue to import those commodities at lower tariffs and intensify the production of those that had less cost of production.

He said the government's announcement to implement the ECOWAS tarrifs could aggravate the already overburdened situation, considering the fact that rice importers were already paying 35 per cent tax. "High tariffs do not grow business, what they do is to increase the burden of final consumers, since the importers and sellers will ultimately like to make some profit at all cost."

Mr Awuni said three years ago Nigeria adopted the method of increasing taxes on rice by 100 per cent to discourage the importation of the commodity, but subsequently, it created untold hardships to the ordinary consumers, thereby compelling the government to currently reduce taxes on imported rice to 32.6 per cent, importing about three million tons of rice now. He appealed to government to cushion rice and poultry farmers to reduce the cost of production to make it cheaper and favourably competitive with imported rice in terms of cost and quality. "Whether we like it or not, there is no way Ghana for now can produce enough rice for local consumption. It is also impossible, now to favourably compete with countries such as the USA, China, Brazil, Vietnam and Thailand." He said although the domestic fowls were tastier than the imported chicken, cost of production was currently compelling farmers to sell a 1.7k= g of local fowls at GHC15.00, while the same quantity of imported fowls were selling at GHC4.50, thereby attracting more patronage than the domestic breed.

"With better financial arrangements, I believe Ghana will one day stand out as one of the best producers with lower cost than any other country in the sub-region in the coming years." Mr Awuni said it was unacceptable that although Ghana had a tomato factory in the Upper East, they most of the time had to import several tons of tomato puree to can at the factory and called on government to empower the farmers to increase their production levels throughout the country. "Again the importation of onions, beans, yellow corn and day old chicks= is unacceptable since we have the capacity and comparative advantage to produc= e those crops to feed ourselves and others in the sub-region." The statemen= t concluded.