There's going to be tomato boom in Ghana - Deputy Agric Minister

Tomato traders in recent times have bemoaned the shortage of this commodity on the market following the conflict in one of Ghana's neighbouring countries, Burkina Faso.

Inasmuch as farmers in the Northern part of Ghana grow tomatoes, they are entangled with several challenges such as poor road networks that connect buyers to the farms and vice versa, and inadequate infrastructure, among others.

This shortage of tomatoes on the market has led to an astronomical increment in the price.

Consumers, on the other hand, have complained about the high price of tomatoes due to their unavailability.

But it appears both tomato traders and consumers are going to heave a sigh of relief as the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Yaw Frimpong Addo, has said this commodity will soon be in abundance.

Speaking on The Lowdown programme on GhanaWeb TV, Mr Addo noted that investors were poised to take over the farmlands and pump their monies into the tomato industry.

This boost in the sector, he said, will lead to an increment in tomato production in the country.

"There is going to be tomatoes boom. That's all I can say. These are short-cycle crops," the deputy food and agric minister told the host of The Lowdown, Daniel Oduro.

Touching on GMOs, Yaw Frimpong Addo stated that it is not a crime for Ghanaians to consume Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) products which include canned tomatoes.

"It's not a crime to consume GMO. The kind of foods that they bring in here, I mean, this canned tomatoes, do you know how they cultivate them?" he quizzed.

ESA/NOQ

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