Minister calls for collaboration to promote agro-business

Dr Ekow Spio-Gabrah, the Minister of Trade and Industry, has called for the creation of a platform to ensure that regular information on food crops are made available at any part of the country.

He said such a platform could be created through the collaboration between district assemblies, his Ministry and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

This, he explained, would inform agro-processing factories in the country where crops are available and also provide markets for the farmers.

Dr Spio-Gabrah made the call at the end of his first day of his three-day working tour of the Eastern Region.

He was commenting on the complains of PINORA company which produces orange and pineapple concentrate for export and HPW, tropical dries fruits exporters, whose major concerns were the unavailability of local fruits for their production to meet their demand .

Dr Spio-Gabrah said such concerns also create opportunities for young entrepreneurs to start thinking of establishing companies to meet expected needs.

PINORA has plans to produce 51,000 metric tons of orange and pineapple juice concentrate this year for export while HPW exported 900,000 metric tons of dried tropical fruits from Ghana to Europe last year.