Private and public vegetable exporters advised to collaborate

Mr Kwesi Korboe, Technical Advisor, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, has called for collaboration between the public and private sector in ensuring that vegetable exporters comply with regulations of the European Union (EU).

He said currently Ghana exports about 4,000 metric tonnes of vegetables and this could improve when the private and public sectors work together to meet the EU standards.

“Private and Public sectors collective engagement will help for this goal to be achieved extensively,” Mr Korboe said in Accra on Wednesday, at the sixth GhanaVeg Business Platform Meeting Agenda.

He encouraged exporters to certify their products and ensure that farmers adhere to traceability and production issues, which is one of the major challenges the export market is facing.

“Develop systems because it is a potential to grow for foreign exchange to come to the country through your activities,” he advised.

Mrs Sheila Assibey-Yeboah, Deputy Programmes Leader, GhanaVeg, noted that her outfit is driven by a strong belief in healthy and quality vegetables from Ghana through new ways of doing business.

She said it is GhanaVeg’s goal of developing commercial vegetables in Ghana to meet quality standards not only on the market but for citizen’s consumption.

“Our objectives include improving productivity in the vegetable sector, facilitating more efficient markets, including; linking vegetable producers and other value chain operators with the Dutch private sector,” she said.

She said the forum is held annually to engage exporters, farmers and the agricultural sector towards the improvement of the business climate, and further professionalising the value chain for vegetable production and consumption in Ghana and Africa at large.

The programme leader of GhanaVeg, Mr Joep Van den Broek, said GhanaVeg is ready to support the vegetable sector to become innovative, competitive and efficient to meet the demands in the export market.

It would as well help to boost the confidence of the Ghanaian society so as to increase consumption of vegetable crops.

“There is a huge market available which is not being met,” he said, adding that there is the need to establish a sustainable and internationally competitive vegetable sector that would contribute to inclusive economic growth in the country.

Mr Van den Broek encouraged exporters to have designated farms where they would pick their crops for export.

Touching on the issue of certification, he said, efforts are underway to launch the Ghana Green Label to certify farmers who engage in good agricultural practices.

He encouraged stakeholders to apply for the GhanaVeg funds to better place the sector.

The meeting was on the theme: “Phytosanitation and Green Label Certification-The Way Forward.”

GhanaVeg is an initiative of The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in line with efforts towards prioritising commercial agriculture in its four years Multi-Annual Strategic Plan (2014-2017).