Ghana needs to harness its abundant feedstock

Ghana needs to reposition itself and take advantage of the world’s crave for the extraction of fibre from feedstock to be used as packaging materials to prevent food loss, Mr Kwesi Abaidoo, President of Institute of Packaging Ghana (IOPG), has said.

He explained that stocks and peels of plantain, sugar cane, cocoanut, banana and pineapple were abundant in the country and their fibre could be extracted, processed and used as packaging material.

Mr Abaidoo said this at a day’s workshop organized for government agencies and small and medium enterprises by the Institute of Packaging Ghana with support from the BUSAC Fund in Tamale. It was on the topic, “Enhancing National Productivity through Efficient and Effective Packing”.

He said the nation’s ability to harness such potential, being championed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), could also cut more than 60 per cent of the organic waste generated.

“Currently, the FAO is conducting a research to find out where to obtain volumes of the feedstock, which could be obtained and recommended to investors to cite processing factories in these areas”, he said.

Mr Abaidoo said there was the need to do more research, collaborate with research centers that had developed such technologies to learn.

“The technology to process is there and with little investment, we can start it on a small scale in the district to address the waste management challenge especially the plastics. Most of the fibre can be transformed into bio-degradable when some active agents are added to it to make it hydrocarbon and can be turned into polymers,” he said.

Mr Abaidoo said the country needed to develop a comprehensive policy framework to guide packaging industry due to its contribution to the safety of products especially food.

He said although packaging was a developmental issue that had an impact on food security and the livelihood of people, government’s commitment towards developing a policy to regulate that sector had been weak.